V 



/ '/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 





r 




GEN. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



STORIES*- 



AND 



S^CiETOXHIiES 



OF 




f/S 



GEN. GARFIELD, 

Including His Early History, War Eecord, Public 
Speeches, Nomination, and All the Interesting 
Facts of His Great Career from the Farm 
.^^ Boy to His Candidacy for President. 



t^ EDITED BY 



Compiler of " Moody's Anecdotes ;" •' Moody's Chi Id Stories ; " " Edison and His 

Inventions;" "Lincoln's Stories;" 'Mistakes of Ingersoll ; " "Stories 

and Sketches of Gen. Grant;" "Entertaining Anecdotes;" "Replies 

to Ingersoll pu Thomas Fame ;" "Stones and Sketches of Chicago," Etc. 



CHICAGO: 
EHODES & McCLURE, PUBLISHERS. 

1880. 

T 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, 

By J. B. McClure & K. S. Rhodes, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



JUNGBLUT, HeNRICKS & CO., 
KLECTROTTPERS. 



Co-operative Print, 241 S. Water-st., 
CHICAGO. 




We present in this volume an authentic and exceedingly 
interesting outline of Gen. Gariield's life, carefully pre- 
pared from all available sources. No one, young or old, 
can read these stories and sketches of the farmer boy, wood- 
chopper, canal-driver, school-boy, carpenter, teacher, college 
president, soldier, congressman, and Presidential candidate, 
without being deeply interested and benefitted. In this 
form, with its wide field for usefulness, the book is dedicated 
to the public 



Chicago, June 21, 1880. 



J. B. McCLURE. 




Page. 
Anecdote of Gen. Garfield at Murfreesboro, Illustrating a 

J^oble Trait of His Character 130 

Anecdote of Garfield's Early Life — His Greatness Antici- 
pated by a Woman in Connection with a Laughable In- 
cident 33 

An Interesting Keminiscence— Garfield and Arthur both 
School Teachers in the Same Koom at North Pownal, 
Vermont 33 

An Interesting Story — Garfield as a Temperance Man— How 

He Disposed of an Obnoxious Brewery in One Hour 41 

An Interesting Reminiscence of Garfield's Youth— A Letter 
He Wrote Twenty-three Years Ago that Helped to Make 
a College President, and that President Now Eeads It 
to His Students 119 

A Pen Picture of Garfield 34 

A Splendid Record — Summary of Garfield's Labors — The 

Rewards of Industry 49 

A Trying Ordeal— In the Hands of the Doctors— Melting 
Down an "Ague Cake" with Calomel ! — How the Cruci- 
ble (Young Garfield) Endured It — He is Saved by a Kind 
Mother 23 

X. 



CONTENT;- 



Boyhood of Gen. Garfield— The Farmer Boy on the Tow- 
path— A Tough Time— Good Health and Indomitable 
Energy Triumphant IS 

C 

Chester A. Arthur — Sketch of His Life 142 

Col. Garfield's First Great Battle— He Defeats Humphrey 

Marshall and Wins a Brigadier-Generalsliip 58 

Comparative Statement of Ballots 93 

Closing Scenes in Garfield's AVar Record— Why He Left the 

Army 66 

ID 

Dignity of American Citizenship— Garfield's Speech in Wash- 
ington, J une 16, 1880 132 

Dying Words of Gen. Garfield's Father— He Leaves His Four 

Children in Care of His Wife 115 

Enthusiasm on Fire — Making the Nomination of Gen. Gar- 
field Unanimous at the Chicago Republican Conven- 
tion — Speeches of Messrs. Conkling, I>ogan, Beaver, 
Hale, Pleasants, and Harrison 9§ 



First Vote for Garfield in the Chicago Convention— The Man 
Who Gave It Voted for Zachary Taylor and Abraham 
Lincoln Under Like Circumstances 107 

Full Details of Garfield's Pound Gap Expedition— Strategy 

and Victory— Battle of Pittsburg Landing, etc 59 



CONTENTS. 

Garfielcl at College— He Graduates with High Honors— His 
Personal Appearance at This Period that of a Newly 
Imported Dutchman 27 

Garfield at Home— His Eesidence in Mentor — His Family 

and His Mother 42 

Garfield in War — How He Volunteered to Put Down the 
Rebellion, and was Promoted — Interesting Incidents on 
the Field of Battle 53 

Garfield Nomination Joke Ill 

Garfield on the Democracy — Extract from One of His Old 

Speeches— His Walk in the Democratic Graveyard 73 

Garfield "Photographed" by "Gath" — A Remarkably In- 
teresting Pen Picture of the Great Man — His Physical, 
Social, Moral, and Intellectual Powers 46 

Garfield's Celebrated Speech at the Andersonville Reunion 
Held at Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 3, 1879— How the General 
Looks " Without Gloves ! " 78 

Garfield's Extra Session Speech — Turning on the Light 128 

Garfield's First Ride on the Cars — First Visit to Columbus- 
First School, Etc. — Interesting Reminiscences 126 

Garfield's Great Speech at Columbus, Acknowledging His 

Election as United States Senator S3 

Garfield's Life in Hiram Sketched by President Hinsdale, of 

Hiram College— An Interesting History 116 

Garfield's School Days — He Attends a High School— Takes 
His Frying-pan Along— The Old, Old Story of What 
Grit Will Do 25 

Garfield's Speech at the Wisconsin Republican Reunion- 
Outlining the Condition of the Country 76 

Gen. Garfield as a Wood-Chopper — He Contracts to Put Up 
Twenty-five Cords— His Visit to Cleveland Harbor, 
and Laughable Interview with " The Captain 19 



CONTENTS. 

Gen. Garfield En Route for Home After His Nomination for 
President— From Illinois to Ohio— Incidents and Wel- 
comes by the AVay 102 

Gen. Garfield is Called to the Halls of Congress from the 
Fields of War— How it was Done— Early Experience of 
the Farmer Boy on the Floor 69 

Gen. Garfield on the Floor of the Great Chicago Convention 
—Full Text of His Eloquent Speech Nominating John 
Sherman for President— Delivered June 5, 1880 87 

Gen. Garfield's First Important Speech After His Nomina- 
tion—It is Delivered to the Students of Hiram College 
on " Commencement Day "—An Interesting Address. . . 44 

Gen. Garfield's Marriage— A Happy Home— What the Gen- 
eral Says of His Wife 31 

Gen. Garfield's Proclamation to the Citizens of Sandy 

Valley 62 

Gen. Garfield's Speech Before the Hiram College Eeunion 
Association— The Commencement Day of 1880 Long to 
be Remembered 12^ 



Heroic Conduct of Gen. Garfield on the Field of Chicka- 
mauga— Driving Back Longstreet's Columns and Saving 
Gen. Thomas 63 

How the Xews of Garfield's Nomination was Received at 

Hiram College— Ringing the Old Bell 107 



Increasing Fame of the College President— His Election to 

the State Senate, and What He Did 32 



CONTENTS. 
O 

Off the Tow-path— Why Young Garfield Abandoned the 
Canal— A Providential Escape that Set Him to Think- 
inji' and Sent Him Home 22 



Professor Garfield in the Hiram Eclectic Institute— He 
Becomes President of the Institution— How He Became 
a Preacher 29 

President Hinsdale's Stories and Tribute to Gen. Garfield, 
the Man who was in Hiram College Before Him— The 
Canal and Wood-Chopping Incidents— How He Made 
Success Possible, and Why He Succeeded a 36 

s 

Seventeen years a Member of Congress— Garfield's Great 

Work in the Halls of Legislation— A Triumphant Leader 71 

Summary of Ballots in the National Republican Conven- 
tion—Nominating Garfield for President 97 

The Break to Garfield— Thirty-fourth Ballot 94 

The Canal Story, Told by Garfield's Employer 134 

The Way Garfield Got His Military Education 140 

The General and the Fugitive Slave 141 

The Habits and Methods of Garfield 138 

»' The Member from New York" 133 

The Turning Point in Garfield's Life 135 

The Thirty-fifth Ballot 95 

The Thirty-sixth and Last Ballot— Garfield Nominated 96 

What Prominent Eoreign-Born Citizens Say of the Conven- 
tion—They Declare It Positively American 108 

Who is Gen. Garfield? 113 



g^gMfe^fe 




HOME LIFE 17 

WAR KECOIIT) 53 

SPEECHES ....... eg 

GAEFIELD'S KOMIXATIOX . ... 91 

MISCELLANEOUS - Il3 







'^ The man wlio wants to serve his country must piit 
himself in the line ol its leading thought, and that is 
tlie restoration of business, trade, commerce, industry, 
sound political economy, hard money, and the honest 
payment of all obligations, and the man who can add any- 
thing in the direction of accomplishing any of tiiese 
purposes is a public benefactor."— (6r^«^:^eM in Congress, 
Dec. 10. 187S.) 



STORIES AND SKETCHES 

OF 

Greneral GrarfielcL. 



HOME LIFE. 



Boyhood of Gen. Garfield— The Farmer Boy— On the Tow-path— A Toug 
Time— Good Health and Indomitable Energy Triumphant. 

Gen. James Abraham Garfield, the farmer boy, canal 
boatman, carpenter, school teacher, college professor, 
preacher, soldier, congressman, the popular candidate of 
the Kepublican party for Presidential honors, was born in 
the township of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, fifteen 
miles from Cleveland, on the 10th of November, 1831. 
His father, Abraham Garfield, was born in Otsego County, 
New York, and was of a family that had resided in 
Massachusetts for several generations. His mother, Eliza 
Ballon, niece of the Rev. Hosea Ballon, the noted 
Universalist clergyman, was born in Cheshire County, New 
Hampshire. The General is, therefore, of New England 
stock. 

James was the youngest son of four children. The 

father died in 1833, leaving the family dependent upon a 

17 2 



18 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

small farm and the exertions of tlie mother. There was 
nothing about the elder Garfield to distinguish him from 
the other plodding farmers of the rather sterile to^\mship 
of Orange. JMo one could discern any qualities in him, 
which, transmitted to the next generation, might help to 
make a statesman, unless it was industry; but his wife, who 
is still living at an advanced age, was always fond of reading 
when she could get leisure from her hard household duties, 
and was a thoroughly capable woman, of strong will, stern 
j)rinciples, and more than average force of character. 

Of the children, no one besides James has made the 
slightest mark in the world. The older brother is a farmer 
in Michigan, and the two sisters are farmers' wives. 

The General had a tough time of it when a boy. He 
toiled hard on the farm early and late in summer, and 
worked at the carpenter's bench in winter. The best of it 
was he liked work. There was not a lazy hair on his head- 
He had an absorbing ambition to get an education, and 
the only road opened to this end seemed that of mamial 
labor. Ready money was hard to get in those days. 

The Ohio Canal ran not far from where he lived, and, 
finding that the boatmen got their pay in cash, and earned 
better wages than he could at farming or carpentry, he 
hired out as a driver on the tow-path, and soon got up to 
the dignity of holding the helm of a boat. Then he 
determined to ship as a sailor on the lakes, but an attack 
of fever and ague interfered with his plans. 

He was ill three months, and when he recovered he 
decided to go to a school called Geauga Academy, in an 
adjoining county. His mother had saved a small sum of 
money, which she gave him, together with a few cooking 
utensils and a sack of provisions. He hired a small room 
and cooked his own food to make his expenses as light as 



HOME LIFE. 19 

possible, lie paid his o^vii way after that, never calling ou 
his mother for any more assistance. 

By working at the carpenter's bench mornings and 
evenings and vacation times, and teaching conntry schools 
during the winter he managed to attend the academy 
during the spring and fall terms, and to save a little money 
toward going to college. He had excellent heath, a robust 
frame, and a capital memory, and the attempt to combine 
mental and physical work, which has broken down many 
farmer boys ambitions to get an education, did not hurt 
him. 



Gen. Garfield as a Wood-Chopper— He Contracts to Put Up Twenty-five Cords 
—His Visit to Cleveland Harbor, and Laughable 
Interview with the " The Captain." 

The friends and early companions of the Greneral relate 
wonderful stories of his precocit}', telling how he could 
read at 3 years, and possessed remarkable capacitvfor com- 
mitting to memory what he had read, so that at the age 
when boys usually learn their letters he was somewhat ad- 
vanced in literature. During all the years of boyhood he 
simply worked and attended school, and grew strong and 
hearty, until, at the age ot sixteen, he was fully capable of 
doing a strong man's work on the farm. In the spring of 
this year he went to the To^vnship of Newburg, now in the 
limits of Cleveland, to chop cordwood. 

He took a job of putting up twenty-five cords, and man- 
fully did he set himself in his solitude to his task. To the 
north of him, as he worked, was the lake in slaty blue. 
There, in miniature, was the ocean of which he had so long 
di-eamed. Everything had to be won by little. The ocean 
was a great way off. He could not early reach it. He 
would begin his life of a sailor on the lake, and then seek a 



20 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIELB. 

Avider range uj)on the " ocean blue." The work of wood- 
chopping was vigorously prosecuted, and time flew with 
great rapidity. 

He felt that the pay tor wood-chopping was hardly suffi- 
cient for a start, and so he hired out to a Mr. Treat, during 
the haying and harvesting season, but he still dreamed on. 
When this job was finished he went home to his mother 
and announced his intentions. She knew well that it was 
useless to oppose him, now that he had really set his heart 
upon it, and so, in the midst of prayer and God-blessings, 
he departed. 

He visited the harbor in Cleveland. Here he found a 
single vessel about to depart for a trip up the lakes. In all 
his dreams he had never seen a Captain except as a sort of 
mixture of angel and dashing military officer in blue coat 
and brass buttons. He went on board this vessel and in- 
quired for the Captain. He was told, with a smile, by one 
of the men, that the Captain would come up from the hold 
in a fevv" minutes. He had not long to wait. Presently a 
drunken wretch, brutal in every feature, came up, swearing 
at every step. 

" There is the Captain," said one of the men. 

The country lad stepped forward and modestly asked if a 
hand was wanted. 

Turning upon the youth, the brute poured a volley ofj 
pent-up curses and oaths, and made no other answer. 

The poor awkward boy was for a moment amazed, and 
then, turning away, walked about to recover himself. He 
was by no means cui"ed of his longing for the sea; he had 
too strong a will for that, and this had taken too strong a 
hold upon him. Kevolving the matter in his miad, he 
came to the conclusion that he had failed because he lacked 
some initiatory process.' As the lake was to the ocean, so 
should the canal be to the lake ; he would apply at the canal 
and gain some training there. 



E02IE LIFE. 21 

Young Garfield Tries the Canal— Thirteen Duckings on the First Trip, and one 
Fight— The First Victory. 

!N"otwithstanding his poor success witli "the Captain," 
young Garfield determined to persevere, and the very first 
canal-boat he visited wanted a driver, and he got the place. 
The General avers that, by actual count, he fell into the 
can;d thirteen times on the first trip. Knowing nothing 
of the art of swimming, he came very near drowning. He 
worked faithfully and well, however, and at the end of his 
first round trip he was promoted from driver to bowsman. 

On his first trip to Beaver, in this new capacity, he had 
his first fight. lie was standing on the deck, with the 
setting pole against his shoulders. Some feet away stood 
Dave, a great, good-natured boatman, and a firm friend 
of the young General. The boat gave a lurch, the pole 
slipped from the youth's shoulder, and flew in the direction 
of Dave. 

"■ L(jok out, Dave!" called Garfield; but the pole was 
there first, and struck Dave a severe blow in the ribs. 

Garfield expressed his sorrow, but it was of no use. 
Dave turned upon the luckless boy with curses, and 
threatened to thrash him. Garfield knew he was innocent 
even of carelessness. 

The threat of a flogging from a heavy man of 35 roused 
the hot Garfield blood. Dave rushed upon him with his 
head down, like an enraged bull. As he came on, Garfield 
sprang one side and dealt him a powerful blow just back 
of and under the left ear. Dave went to the bottom of the 
boat with his head between two beams, and his now heated 
foe went after him, seized him by the throat, and lifted the 
same clenched hand for another blow. 

"Pound the blamed fool to death, Jim," called the 
appreciative Captain. ""Ifhehaint no more sense to get 
mad at accidents he orto die; " and, as the youtli hesitated, 
*'Whv don't vou strike? Blame me, if I'll interfere." 



22 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

He could not; the man was down, lielj^less in his power. 
Dave exjDressed regret at his rage. Garliekl gave liim his 
hand, and they were better friends than ever. 

The victory gave the young man much prestige among 
the canal men. The idea that a hoy could thrash Dave 
was somethino; that the roughs could not understand. 



Oif the Tow-Path.— Why Young Garfield Abandoned the Canal.— A Provi- 
dential Escape that Set Him to Thinking and 
Sent Him Home. 

The General says that two causes were instrumental in 
causing him finally to abandon the canal. One was his 
mother, and the other was the ague cake in his side. 

He had worked but a short time when he began to feel 
the ague in his system, and finally it assumed a very seri- 
ous form. 

His money fell into the water, and the thorough wetting 
which followed increased his disease, and finally one especi. 
ally heavy fall left him to reason quite fully over the mat- 
ter. It was night, and in the darkness he grasped for 
something to draw himself out of the water. As luck 
would have it he chanced to reach the dry rope of the boat. 
Hand over hand he grasped the rope, and finally he drew 
himself up. 

He thought of his mother, and how he had left her with 
the intention of going upon the lake, and how she still 
believed he was there. 

The next day's warm sun dried his clothes, but he 
was sicker than ever with the chills, and he determined 
upon reaching Cleveland to go and visit his mother and lay 
off long enough to get well. 

It was after dark when he approached the home of the 
widow and orphans. Coming cjuietly near he heard her 



HOME LIFE. 23 

voice in prayer •\vitliin. He bowed and listened as the fer- 
vent prayer went on. He heard her pray for him. 

When the voice ceased he softly raised the latch and 
entered. Her pra^^er was answered. Not till after that 
time did he know that his going away had crushed her. 



A Trying Ordeal— In the Hands of the Doctors— Melting Down an "Agu 

Cake " with Calomel I— How the Crucible i Young Garfield) Endured 

It— He is Saved by a Kind Mother. 

After the terrible ducking and narrow escape that closed 
the hibors of young Garfield on the canal, lie was at once 
prostrated with the " ague cake," as the hardness of the left 
side is popularly called. One of the old school JM.D.'s 
salivated him, and for several awful months he lay on the 
bed with a board so adjusted as to conduct the flow 
of saliva from his mouth while the cake was dissolving 
under the influence of cak)mel, as the doctor said! 

Nothing but the indissoluble constitution given him by 
his father carried him through. However it fared witli 
that obdurate cake, his })assioii for the sea survived, and he 
intended to return to the canal. The wise, sagacious love 
of the mother won. She took counsel of other helps. 
During the dreary months with tender watchfulness she 
cared for liiin. She trusted in his noble natui'e; she 
trusted in good faith that, although he constantly talked 
of carrying out his old plans, he would abandon them. 

Not tor 3'ears did he know the agony these M'ords cost 
her. She merely said, in her sweet, quiet way: 

'James, you're sick. If you return to the canai, I fear 
you will be taken down again. I have been thinking it 
over. It seems to me you had better go to school this 
spring, and then, with a term in the fall, you maybe able 
to teach in the winter. It vou can teach winters and want 



24 STOmJES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD 

to go on tlic canal or lake summers, you will haves 
employment the year round." 

Wise woman that she was, in his broken condition it did 
not seem a bad plan. While he revolved it, she went on : 

" Your money is now all gone, but your brother Thomas 
and I will be able to raise $17 for you to start to school on, 
and you can perhaps get along, after that is gone, upon 
your own resources." 

He took the advice and the money, — the only fund ever 
contributed by others to him either in fitting or passing 
through college, — and went to The Grange, a seminary at 
Chester. 

In speaking of this longing for the sea, the General said, 
half regretfully : 

" But even now, at times, the old feeling, (the longing 
for the sea) comes back," and, walking across the room, he 
turned, with a flashing eye: "I tell you I would rather 
now command a fleet in a great naval battle than to do 
anything else on this earth. The sight of a ship often fills 
me with a strong fascination, and when upon the water, 
and my fellow-landsmen are in the agonies of sea-sickness, 
I am as tranquil as when walldng the land in the serenest 
weather." 

And so the mother conquered. When a thirst for 
knowledge was once engendered in the youth, the mother 
stood in no danger of losing him. But during all -those 
years of education, there were obstacles of great magnitude 
to be overcome, poverty to be struggled against, and 
victories to be won. 




HOME LIFE. 25 

Garfield's School Days— He Attends a High School— Takes His Frying-pan 
Along-The Old Old Story of What Grit Will Do. 

Up to the time of vonng Garfield's canal experience lie 
seemed to have cherished little ambition for anything 
beyond the prospects ofiered by the laborious life he had 
entered. But it happened that one of the winter schools 
was taught by a promising young man named Samuel 
Bates. He had attended a high school in 'an adjacent 
township, known as the " Geauga Seminary," and with the 
proselyting spirit common to young men in the back- 
woods, who were beginning to taste the pleasures of edu- 
cation, he was very anxious to take back several new 
students with him. 

Garfield listened to Mr. Bates, and was tempted. lie 
had intended to become a sailor on the lakes, but he was 
yet too ill to carry out this plan, and so he finally resolved 
to attend the high school one teinn, and postpone sailing 
till the next fall. 

That resolution made a scholar, a Major General, a 
Senator-elect, and a Presidential candidate out of him, 
instead of a sailor before the m ast on a Lake Erie schooner. 
The boy never dreamed of what the man would be. 

Early in March, 1849, young Garfield reached Chester 
(the site of the Geauga Academy) in company with his 
cousin and another young nuui from his village. They car- 
ried with them frying-pans and dishes as well as their few 
school books. They rented a room in an old, unpainted 
frame house near the academy, and went to wor . Garfield 
bought the second Algebra he had ever seen, and began to 
study it. English Grammar, Natural Philosophy, and 
Arithmetic were the list of his studies. 

His mother had scraped together a little sum of money 
to aid him at the start, which she gave him with 
her blessino' when he left his humble home. After that he 



26 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

never had a dollar in his life that he did not earn. As soon 
as he began to feel at home in his classes he sought among 
the carpenters of the village for employment at his trade. 

He worked mornings, evenings, and Saturdays, and thus 
earned enough to pay his way. When the summer vaca- 
tion came he had a longer interval for work; and so when 
the fall term opened lie had enough money laid up to pay 
his tuition and give him a start ao-ain. 

By the end of the fall term Garlield had made such 
progress that a lad of 18 thought he was able to teach a 
district school. Then the future seemed easy to him. The 
fruits of the winter's teaching were enough, with his 
economical management to pay the expenses of the spring 
and fall terms at the academy. Whatever he could make 
at his morning and evening work at his carpenter's trade 
would go to swell another fund, the need of which he had 
begun to feel. 

For the backwoods lad, village carpenter, tow-path canal 
hand, would-be sailor, had now resolved to enter college. 
" It is a great point gained," he said years afterwards, 
"when, in our hurrying times, a young man makes up his 
mind to devote several years to the accomplishment of 
definite work." It was so now in his o\\m case. With a 
definite purpose before him he began to save all his 
earnings, and to shape all his exertions to the one end. 

Through the summer vacation of 1850 he worked at his 
trade, helping to build houses within a stone's throw of 
the academy. During the next session of the academy 
he was able to abandon Ijoarding himself, having found a 
boarding house where he found the necessaries of life for 
$1 per week. 

The next winter he taught again, and m the spring 
removed to Hiram to attend the " Institute " over which 
he was afterward to preside. So he continued teaching a 



EC2JE LIFE. 27 

tenn each winter, attending school through spring and fall, 
and keeping up with his classes hy private study during 
the time he was absent. Before he had left Iliram 
Institute he was the finest Latin and Greek scholar that the 
school had ever seen — and at this day he reads and writes 
the language fluently. 

At last, by the summer of 1854, the carpenter and tow- 
path boy had gone as far as the high school and academies 
of his native region could carry him. He was now nearly 
23 years old. The struggling, hard-working boy had de- 
veloped into a self-reliant man. 

He was the neighborhood wonder for scholarship, and a 
general favorite for the hearty, genial ways that had never 
deserted him. He had been brought up in '' the Church 
of the Disciples," as it loved to call itself, of which 
Alexander Campbell was the great light. At an early age 
he had followed the example of his parents in connecting 
himself with this church. His life corresponded with his 
profession. Everybody believed in and trusted him. 

He had saved from his school-teaching and carpenter 
work about half enough money to carry him through the 
two years in which he thought he could finish the ordinary 
colleo-e course. 



Garfield at College-He Graduates with Higii Honors-His Personal Appear- 
ance at this Period that of a " Newly-Imported Dutchman. " 

AYhen he was 23 yeai-s of age young Garfield concluded 
he had got about all there was to be had in the obscure 
cross-roads academy. He calculated that he had saved 
about half enough money to get through college, provided 
he could begin, as he hoped, with the Junior year. He 
was growing old, and he determined that he must go to 
colleo-e that fall. 



28 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

How to procure the rest of tlie needed money was a 
mystery; but at last his good character, and the good will 
this brought him, solved the question. 

He was in vigorous lusty health, and a life insurance 
policy was easily obtained. This he assigned to a gentle- 
man who thereupon loaned him what money was needed, 
knowing that if he lived he would j)ay it, and it he died 
the ]')olicy would secure it. 

Pecuniary difficulties thus disposed of, he was ready to 
start. But where? He had originally intended to attend 
Bethany College, the institution sustained by the church of 
which he was a member, and presided over by Alexander 
Campbell, the man above all others whom he had been 
taught to admire and revere. But as study and experience 
had enlarged his vision, he had come to see that there were 
Ijetter institutions outside the limits of his peculiar sect. 

So in the fall of 1854 the pupil ot Geauga Seminary and 
the Hiram Institute applied for admission at the venerable 
doors of Williams College. He knew no graduate of the 
college and no student attending it; and of the President 
he only knew that he had published a volume of lectures 
wdiich he liked, and that he had w^ritten a kindly word to 
him when he spoke of coming. 

The Western carpenter and village school-teacher re- 
ceived many a shock in the new sphere he had now entered. 
On every hand he was made to feel the social superiority of 
his fellow-students. Their ways were free from the .awk- 
ward habits of the untrained laboring youth. Their speech 
was free from the uncouth phrases of the provincial circles 
jn which he moved. Their toilets made the handiwork of 
his village tai lor sadly shabby. Their free-handed -exj^en- 
ditures contrasted strikingly with his enforced parsimony. 
To some tough- fibred hearts these would have been only 
petty annoyances. To the warm, social, generous mind of 



HOME LIFE. 29 

young Garfield they seem, from more than one indication of 
his college life that we can gather, to have been a source of 
positive anguish. 

But he bore bravely up, maintained the advance standing 
in the junior class to which he had been admitted on his. 
arrival, and at the end of his two years' course (in 1856) 
bore off the metaphysical honor of his class — reckoned at 
Williams among the highest within the gift of the institu- 
tion to her graduating members. 

Eut now, on his return to his home, the younj'- man who 
had gone so far East as to old AVilliams, and had come back 
decorated with her honors, was thought good for anything. 

A daguerreot\^3e of him taken about this time represents 
a rather awkward youth, witli a shock of light hair stand 
ing straight up from a big forehead, and a frank, thought 
ful face, of a very marked German tj^e. There is not^ 
however, a drop of German blood in the Garfield family, 
but this })icture would be taken for some Fritz or Carl just 
over from the Fatherland. 



Proffessor Garfield in the Hiram Eclectic Institute.— Ee Becomes President 
of the Institution.— How He Became a Preacher. 

Before he went to college Garfield had connected him- 
self with the Disciples, a sect having a numerous member 
ship in Eastern and Southern Ohio, West Virginia, and 
Kentucky, where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had 
traveled and preached. 

The principal peculiarities of the denomination are their 
refusal to formulate their beliefs into a creed, the indepen- 
dence of each congregation, the hospitality and frateriial 
feeling of the members, and the lack of a regular ministry. 

When Garfield returned to Ohio it was natural that ho 
should soon ravitate to the struggling little college of the 



so STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

young sect at Iliram, Portage coimty, near liis boyhood's 
home. 

Here lie was straightway made tutor of Latin and Greek 
in the Hiram Eclectic Institute, in which only two years 
before he had been a pupil, and so he began to work for 
money to pay his debts. So high a position did he take, 
and so po])ular did he become, that the next year he was 
made President of the institute, a position which he con- 
tinued to hold until his entrance into political life, but a 
little before the outbreak of the war. 

Two years of teaching (during which time he married) 
left him even with the world. Through the school year of 
1858-9 he even began to save a little money. At the same 
time he commenced the study of law. 

Hiram is a lonesome country village, three miles from a 
railroad, built upon a high hill, overlooking twenty miles 
of cheese-making country to the southward. It contains 
lifty or sixty houses clustered around the green, in the cen- 
ter of which stands the homely red-brick college structure. 
Plain livino; and hio-h thinkino;' was the order of things at 
Hiram College in those days. The teachers were poor, the 
pupils were poor, and the institution was poor, but there 
was a great deal of hard, faithful st)idy done, and many 
ambitious plans formed. 

The young President taught, lectured, and preached, and 
all the time studied as diligently as any aeolyte in the tem- 
ple of knowledge. He frequently spoke on Sundays in the 
churches of the towns in the vicinity to create an interest 
in«the college. 

Among the Disfciples any one can preach who has a mind 
to, no ordination being required. From these Sunday dis- 
courses came th-e story that Garfield at one time was a 
minister. He never considered himself as such, and never 
had any intention of finding a career in the pulpit. His 



HOME LIFE, 31 

ambition, if lie liad any outside of the school, lay in the 
direction of law and politics. 



Gen. Garfield's Marriage— A Happy Home— What the General says of his Wife. 

Dui'ing his professorship at Hiram, Garfield married 
JMiss Lucretia liudolph, daughter of a farmer in the 
neighborhood, whose acquaintance he had made while at 
the academy, where she was also a pupil. 

She was a quiet, thoughtful girl, of singularly sweet and 
refined disposition, fond of study and reading, possessing a 
warm heart and a mind with the capacity of steady growth. 

The marriage was a love affair on both sides, and has 
been a thoroughly happy one. Much of Gen. Garfield's 
subsequent success in life may be attributed to the never- 
failing sympathy and intellectual companionship of his 
wife and the stimulus of a loving home circle. The young 
couple bought a neat little cottage fronting on the college 
campus, and began their wedded life poor and in debt, but 
with brave hearts. 

Speaking ot his wife recently, Mr. Garfield said: 

I have been wonderfully blessed in the discretion of my wife. 
She is one of the coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw. 
She is unstampcdable. There has not been one solitary instance 
of my public career where I suffered in the smallest degree ior 
any remark she ever made. It woiild have been perfectly natural 
for a woman often to say something that could be misinterpreted; 
but without any design, and with the intelligence and coolness 
of her character, she has never made the slightest mistake that I 
ever heard of. With the competition that has been against me, 
many times such discretion has been a real blessing. 

She has borne him a large family of children, two 
of whom — the eldest boys — are now preparing for college. 
Their home since their marriage has been in Hiram until 
three or four years ago, when they removed to Mentor, 
Lake County, where their residence now is. 



32 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

Increasing Fame of tbe College President— His Election to the State Senate 
and What He Did. 

The College President began to draw attention through 
wider circles than those which he had been a center as a 
teacher, and his oratorical powers had brought him promi- 
nently before the public. As President of the institute, it 
was natural that he should secure a prominent position 
among educated men, and his reputation grew very rapidly 
until, in 1859, the people of his county thought him a 
proper man to represent them in the State Senate. He was 
elected by a large majority, and took an influential part in 
legislation and debate. 

"it is generally supposed that General Garfield was once 
a clergyman. This is not strictly true; he frequently 
appeared in the pulpit of the Disciples Church, in accord- 
ance with the liberal usages of that denomination, but 
never entertained any idea of becoming a minister, nor did 
he ever take holy orders. Since his entrance into politics 
as a member of the Legislature he has not performed any 
ministerial duties, but has turned his attention more to the 
practice of law. 

When the war broke out General Garfield was a leading 
member of the Ohio State Senate, and was the foremost of 
a small band of Republicans who thought it impolitic to 
adopt the constitutional amendments which had been sent 
by Congress to the States forbidding forever legislation on 
the subject of slavery. He took the lead in revising an 
old statute about treason, and when what was known as the 
" million war bill " came up, he was the most conspicuous 
of its advocates. 



A 




HOME LIFE. 33 

Anecdote of Garfield's Early Life— His Greatness Anticipated by a Woman is 
Connection with a Laughable Incident. 

A reminiscence of Gen. Garfield's earlier manliood is 
found in the recital given by one Capt. Styles, the pres- 
ent Sheriff of Ashtabula county, Ohio. In 1S50, Capt. 
Stiles relates that Garfield taught the district school of 
Stiles' district, and " boarded around." Like many other 
school -masters of the pioneer days, Garfield's wardrobe was 
scanty, consisting of but one suit of jean. 

One day the school-master was so unfortunate as to rend 
his pantaloons across the knee in an unseemly degree. He 
pinned up the rend as best he could, and went to the home- 
stead of the Stiles' where he was then boarding. Good 
Mrs. Stiles cheerfully said to the unfortunate pedagogue: 

"Oh, well, James, never mind; you go to bed early and 
I will put a nice patch under that tear, and darn it all up 
so nice that it will last all winter, and when you get to be 
United States Senator nobody will ask you what kind of 
clothes you wore when you were keeping school." 

Last winter when Gen. Garfield was elected Senator from 
the State of Ohio Mrs. Styles, who is still a hale old lady, 
sent her congratulations to \\\m and reminded him of the 
torn pantaloons; and for her kindly congratulations she re- 
ceived a most touching reply from the newly-elected 
Senator, assuring her that the incident was fresh in his 
memory. 



An Interesting Reminiscence— Garfield and Arthur Both School Teachers in 
the Same Room at North Pownal, Vt. 

North Pownal, Bennington, Co., Vt., formerly known 
as Whipple's Corners, is situated in the southwestern 
comer of the State, and by the usually travelled road 
one passes in an hour's ride from New York through the 

3 



34 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

corner of Yermont by way of Nortli Pownal into the State 
of Massachusetts. 

In 1851 Chester A. Arthur, fresh from Union College, 
came to North Pownal, and for one summer taught the 
village school. About two years later James A. Garfield, 
then a young student at Williams College, several miles 
distant, in order to obtain the necessary means to defray 
his expenses while pursuing his studies, came also to North 
Pownal and established a writing-school in the room for- 
merly occupied by Mr. Arthur, and taught classes in pen- 
manship during the long winter evenings. 

Thus, from a common starting-point in early life, after 
the lapse of more than a quarter of a century, after years 
of manly toil, these distinguished men are brought into a 
close relationship before the nation and before the civilized 
world. 



A Pen Picture of Garfield. 

In person Gen. Garfield is six feet high, broad-shouldered 
and strongly built. He has an unusually large head, that 
seems to be three-fourths forehead, light-brown hair and 
beard, large, light-blue eyes, a prominent nose, and full 
cheeks. He dresses plainly, is fond of broad-brimmed 
slouch hats and stout boots, eats heartily, cares nothing for 
luxurious li^dng, is thoroughly temperate in all respects 
save in that of brain-work, and devoted to his wafe and 
children and very fond of his country home. Among men 
he is genial, approachable, companionable, and a remarkably 
entertaining talker. 



HOME LIFE. 0,5 

A Pen Picture of Gen. Garfield's Wife-A Model Woman. 

Mrs. Garfield is a lady of medinin lieig-ht, and of slight 
but well-knit form. She has small features, with a some- 
what prominent forehead, and lier black liair, crimped in 
front and done up in a modest coil, is slightly tinged with 
^ray. A pair of black eyes, and a mouth about which 
there plays a sweetly bewitching smile, are the most attrac- 
tive features of a thoroughly expressive face. In dress she 
is quite as plain as the present mistress of the White 
House, whom she resembles in several respects. Iler man- 
ners are graceful and wiiming in the extreme. Though she 
is noted for her modest, retiring ways and her thorough 
domesticity more than for aiiv other distinmiishiuir char- 
acteristic, her educational accomplishments are many and 
varied. In ail the public life of her distinguished compan- 
ion she has been his constant helpmeet and adviser. She 
is a quick observer, an intelligent listener, but undemon- 
strative in the extreme. When the General was at Chick- 
amagua, and everybody at Iliram was painfully anxious to 
get the latest news from the field of battle, she sat quiet and 
patient in what is now Professor Hinsdale's cosy library, 
and was able to control the inmost emotions that swayed 
her breast. How she received the news of the General's 
nomination at Chicago will probably never be fully known, 
but everybody here is sure that siie was as undemonstrative 
as when waiting for news from Chickamaugua. 




36 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

President Hinsdale's Stories and Tribute to Gen. Garfield, the Man Who was 

in Hiram College Before Him— The Canal and Wood-Chopping 

Incidents— How He ISade Success Possible, and 

Why He Succeeded. 

President B. A. Hinsdale, of Hiram College, on the day 
of Garfield's election to the United States Senate, made the 
following annomi cement to the students in the chapel: 

" To-day a man will be elected to the United States 
Senate in Columbus who, when a boy, was once the bell- 
ringer in this school and afterward its President. Feeling 
this, we ought, in some way, to recognize this step in his 
history. I will to-morrow morning call your attention to 
some of the more notable and worthy features of Gen. Gar- 
field's history and character." 

The address which President Hinsdale delivered on the 
occasion is as iollows: 

Young Ladies and Gentlemen: I am not going to at- 
tempt a formal address on the life and character of Gen. 
Garfield. There is now no call for such an attempt, and I 
have made no adequate preparations for such a task. My 
object is far humbler: simply to hold up to your minds 
some points in his history, and some features in his char- 
acter that young men and women may study with interest 
and profit. 

I shall begin by destroying history, or what is commonly 
held to be history. The popularly accepted account of 
Gen. Garfield's history and character is largely fabulous. 
We are not to suppose that the ages of myth and legend 
are gone; under proper conditions such growths spring up 
now; and I know of no man in public life around whom 
they have sprung up more rankly than around the subject 
of my remarks. 

No doubt you have seen some of the stories concerning 
him and his family that appear ever and anon in the news- 



HOME LIFE. 37 

papers; that his motlier chopped cordwood; that she fought 
wolves with fire to keep them from devouring her children, 
her distinguished son being one of the group; that the cir- 
cumstances of the family were the most pinching; that 
Garfield himself could not read at the age of 21; that he 
was peculiarly reckless in his early life; that, when he had 
become a man, he went down from the pulpit to thrash a 
bully who interrupted him in his sermon on the patience 
of Job. 

These stories, and others like them, are all false and all 
harmfid. They fail of accomplishing the very purpose for 
Avhich they were professedly told— thd stimulation of youth. 
To make the lives of the great distorted and monstrous is 
not to make them fruitful as lessons. 

If a life be anomalous and outlandish, it is, for that 
reason, the poorer example. It is all in the wrong direc- 
tion. It makes the impression that, in human history, 
there is no cause and no effect; no antecedeiit and no con- 
sequent; that everything is capricious and fitful; and sug- 
gests that the best thing to do is to abandon one's self to 
the currents of life, trusting that some beneficent Lnilf 
stream will seize you and bear you to some happy shore. 
No, young people, do not heed such instruction as this. 

The best lives for them to study are those that are natural 
and symmetrical; tliose in wliich the relation between cause 
and efiect is so close and a])parent that the dullest can see 
it; and that preach in the plainest terms the sermon on the 
text: " Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap." 
Irregular and abnormal lives will do for " studies," but 
healthy, normal, liarmonious lives should be chosen for 
example. And Gen. Garfield's life from the first has been 
eminently healthy, normal, and well-proportioned. 

He was born in the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, 
in 1831. His father died when the son was a year and a 



38 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

half old. Abram Gariielcrs circumstances were those of 
his neighbors. Measured by our standard they were all 
poor; they lived on small farms, for wliicli they, had gone 
in debt, hoping to clear and pay for them by their toil. 
Garfield dying, left his wife and four young children in the 
condition that any one of his neighbors would have done 
in like circumstances — poor. The family life before had 
been close and hard enough; now it became closer and 
harder. 

Grandma Garfield, as some of us familiarly call her, was 
a woman of unusual energy, faith, and courage. She said 
the children should not be separated, but kept them 
together; and that the home should be maintained, as 
when its head was living. The battle was a hard one, and 
she won it. All honor to her, but let us not make her 
ridiculous by inventing impossible stories. 

To external appearance, young Garfield's life did not 
differ materially from the lives of the neighbors' boys. 

He chopped wood, and so did they; he mowed, and so 
did they; he carried butter to the store in a little pail, and 
so did they. Other families that had not lost their heads 
naturally shot ahead of the Garfields in property; but 
such differences counted far less then than they do now. 
The traits of his maturer character appeared early; studi- 
ousness, truthfulness, generosity of nature, and mental 
power. So far was he from being reckless, that he was 
almost serious, reverent and thoughtful. So far was he 
from being unable to read at 21 that he was a teacher 
in the district schools before he was 18. 

He was the farthest removed from being a pugilist, 
though he had great physical strength and courage, cool- 
ness of mind, was left-handed withal, and was both able 
and disposed to defend himself and all his rights, and did 
so on due occasion. 



HOME LIFE. G9 

His tliree months' service on the canal has been the 
source of numerous fables and morals. The morals are as 
false as the fables, and more misleading. All I have to 
say about it is: James A, Garfield has not risen to the 
position of a United States Senator because he '" ran on a 
canal." Nor is it because he chopped more wood than the 
neighbors' bovs. Manv a man has run lono-er on the canal, 
and chopped more wood, and never became a Senator. 

Gen. Garfield once rang the school bell when a student 
here. That did not make him the man he is. Convince 
me tliat it did, and I will hang uj) a bell in every tree in 
the cam])us, and set you all to ringing. Thomas Corwin, 
M-hen a boy, drove a wagon, and l)ecame the head of the 
Treasury; Thomas Ewing boiled salt, and became a 
Senator; Henry Clay rode a horse to mill from the 
"Slashes," and he became the great commoner of the 
West. But it was not the wagon, the salt, and horse that 
made these men great. 

These are interesting facts in the lives of these illus- 
trious men; they show that, in our country, it has been, 
and still is possible lor young men of ability, energy, and 
determined pui*pose to rise above a lowly condition, and 
win places of usefulness and lionor. Poverty may be a 
good school; straightened circumstances may develop 
power and character; but the pi-incipal conditions of 
success are in the man, and not in his surroundings. 

Garfield is the man he is because nature gave him a 
noble endowment of faculties that he has nobly handled. 
We must look within, and not without, for the secret of 
destiny. The thing to look at in a man's life are his 
aspirations, his energy, his courage, his strength of will, 
and not the Avood he may have choi)ped, or the salt he may 
liave boiled. How a man works, and not what he does, is 
the test of worth. 



40 ST0RIE8 AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

His success did not lie in liis teclmical scholarship, or his 
ability as a drill-master. Teachers are plenty who much 
surpass him in these particulars. He had great ability to 
grasp a subject; to organize a body of intellectual materials; 
to amass facts and work out striking generalizations; and, 
therefore, lie excelled in rhetorical exposition. An old 
pupil who has often heard him on the stump, once told me, 
" the General succeeds best when talking to tlie people just 
as he did to his class." He imparted to his pupils large- 
ness of view, enthusiasm, and called out of them unbounded 
devotion to himself. 

This devotion was not owing to any plan or trick, but to 
the qualities of the man. Mr. H. M. Jones of the Cleve- 
land schools, an old Hiram scholar, speajking of the old 
Hiram days before Garfield went to college, once wrote me : 
" There began to grow up in me an admiration and love for 
Garfield that has never abated, and the like of which I have 
never known. A bow of recognition, or a simple word 
from him, w^as to me an inspiration." 

Probably all were not equally susceptible, but all the boys 
who were long under his charge (save, perhaj)S, a few 
" sticks ") would speak in the same strain. He had great 
power to energize young men. Gen. Garfield has carried 
the same qualities into public life. He has commanded 
success. His ability, knowledge, mastery of questions, 
generosity of nature, devotion to the public good, and 
honesty of purpose, have done the work. He has never had 
a political "machine." He has never forgotten the day 
of small things. He has never made personal enemies. 

It is difficult to see how a political triumph could be 
more complete or more gratifying than his election to the 
Senate. ]^o "bar-bains," no "slate," no "grocery" at 
Columbus. He did not even go to the Capital City. Such 
things are inspiring to those who think politics in a broad 



HOME LIFE. 41 

way. He is a man of positive convictions, freely uttered. 
Politically he may be called a '• man-of-war; " and yet few 
men, or none, begrudge him his triumph. Democrats vied 
with Republicans the other day in Washington in snowing 
him under with congratulations; some of them were as 
anxious for his election as any Republican could be. 

It is said that he will go to the Senate without an enemy 
on either side of the chamber. These things are honorable 
to all parties. They show that manhood is more than 
party. The Senator is honored, Ohio is honored, and so 
is the school in Hiram, with which he was connected so 
many years. The whole story abounds in interest, and I 
hope I liave so told it as to bring out some of its best 
points, and to give you stimulus and cheer. 



An Interesting Story— Garfield as a Temperance Man— How He Disposed of 
an Obnoxious Brewery in One Hour. 

I heard a little st<jry, says Mr. H. L. Baker, about Gen. 
Gariield, that will illustrate his admirable method of com- 
bining practice with principle. He vouches for the entire 
truth of the story, as he got it from a man who lived almost 
next door to Mr. Garfield in Painesville, Ohio, for ten years, 
and during the time the events spoken of occurred. 

It was in 1865 that the temperance people of Painesville 
were a good deal worked up over a beer brewery running 
full blast in their midst. They held meeting after meeting, 
and discussed all sorts of plans for getting rid of the obnox- 
ious industry, but all to no avail as far as any practical out- 
come was concerned. 

Daring that time Gen. Garfield returned home from the 
army, and attended the next temperance meeting as an ear- 
nest, enthusiastic temperance man. The same old subject 
ot the brewery came up. After listening a few minutes the 
General rose up and said: 



42 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF OARFIELD. 

" Gentlemen, it is the easiest thing in the world to dis- 
pose of that brewery. 1 will agree to do it in one hour." 

The announcement took them all by surprise, of course. 
Suppress in one hour the nuisance they had so long both- 
ered their heads over? Do in one hour what they failed to 
do in six months? It seemed impossible. But he soon 
showed them he meant lousiness. 

He went over to the brewery, and in less than an hour he 
had purchased the whole property and paid the cash, some 
$10,000, I believe. He destroyed all the manufactured 
liquor and all the exclusively brewery machinery. What 
disposal to make of the property was now the question. It 
did not lie idle long, however. 

The ]iext fall he converted the building and machinery 
into a large cider mill, and made hundreds of barrels of 
cider. Xot one drop of cider would he sell or give away, 
for he was too strict a temperance man to think it ricrht to 
drink even cider; but every barrel of it he kept till it had 
become cider vinegai, and then sold it. 

The good ])eople of the town were glad to learn that, 
after, the property proved to be a good investment, and the 
General made it pay him well. After using the building 
four or five years he sold it to other parties, and moved 
upon his farm at Mentor, Lake County, Ohio. 

This is a small thing, to be sure; but it shows that Gen. 
Garfield's principles are not a dead letter, but are real, live 
matters, which he is ready to put into practice in his dailv 
life. 



Garfield at Home— His Residence in Mentor— His Family and His Mother 

Gen. Garfield is the possessor of two homes, and his fam- 
ily migrates twice a year. Some ten years ago, finding 
how unsatisfactory life was in hotels and boarding-houses^ 



HOME LIFE. 4S. 

lie bought a lot of ground on the corner of Thirteenth and 
I streets, in Washington, D. C, and, witli money borrowed 
of a friend, built a plain, substantial three-story house. A 
wing was extended afterward to make room for the fast- 
growing library. The money was repaid in time, and was 
probably sayed in great part from what would otherwise 
haye gone to landlords. The children grew up in pleasant 
home surroundings, and the house became a center of much 
sim])le and cordial hospitality. 

Fiye or six years ago the little cottage at Hiram was 
sold, and for a time the only residence the Garfields had in 
his district was a summer-house he built on Little Mount- 
ain, a bold eleyation in Lake County, which commands a 
view of thirty miles of rich farming country stretched along 
the shore of Lake Erie. 

Three years ago he bought a farm in Mentor, in the same 
county, lying on both sides of the Lake Shore and Michi- 
gan Southern Railroad. Ilei-e his family spend all the time 
when he is free from his duties in Washinp-ton. 

The farm-house is a low, old-fasliit)ned, story-aud-a-half 
building, but its limited accommodations haye been sup- 
}»lemcnted by numerous outbuildings, one of which Gen. 
Garfield uses for office and library purposes. 

The farm contains al)out 160 acres of excellent land, in a 
high state of cultiyation, and the Congressman finds a recre- 
ation, of wliieh he never tires, in directing the field work 
and making im])i-ovements in the buildings, fences, and 
orchards. Cleveland is only twenty -five miles away; tJiere 
is a postoffice and a railway station within half a mile, and 
the pretty country toM-n of Painesville is but five miles 
distant. One of the pleasures of summer life on the Gar- 
field farm is a drive of two miles through the woods to the 
lake shore and a bath in the breakers. 

Gen. Garfield has five children living, and has lost two, 



44 STORIES AND SKEl CHES OF GARFIELD. 

who died in infancj. The two older boys. Harry and 
James, are now at school in New Hampshire. Mary, or 
Molly as everybody calls her, is a handsome, rosy-cheeked 
girl of about 12. The two younger boys are named Irwin 
and Abram. 

The General's mother is still living, and has long been a 
member of his family. She is an intelligent, energetic old 
lady, with a clear head and a strong will, who keeps well 
posted in the news of the day, and is very proud of her 
son's career, though more liberal of criticism than of 
praise. 



Gen. Garfield's First Important Speech After His Nomination — It is Deliv- 
ered to the Students of Hiram College on " Commencement Day "— 
An Interesting Address. 

Gen, Garfield returned home from his nomination in 
Chicago to be present "Commencement Day" at little 
Hiram, where he had once been professor, and afterwards 
president of the institution. Here Garfield met his wife 
for the first time since his nomination, and that, too, at the 
very house where their acquaintance began, within a stone's 
throw ot the college. To the students and his college 
friends there assembled he spoke most grandly. After a 
brief reference to old associations, he added the following 
evidently impromptu remarks: 

"Fellow Citizens, Old Neighbors, and Friends of 
Many Years: It has always given me pleasure to come 
back here and look upon these faces. It has always given 
me new courage and new triends, for it has brought back a 
large share of that richness which belongs to those things 
out of which come the joys of life. 

" While sitting here this afternoon, watching your faces 



HOME LIFE. 45- 

and listening to the very interesting address wliicli lias just 
been delivered, it has occurred to me that the least thing 
you have, that all men have enough of, is perhaps the thing 
that you care for the least, and that is your leisure — the 
leisure you have to think; the leisure you have to be let 
alone; the leisure you have to throw the plummet into your 
mind, and sound the depth and dive for things below; the 
leisure you have to walk about the towers yourself, and find 
how strong they are or how weak they are, to determine 
what needs building up; how to work, and how to know all 
that shall make you the final beings you are to be. Oh, 
these hours of building! 

" If the Superior Being of the universe would look down 
upon the world to find the most interesting object, it would 
be the unfinished, unformed character of the young man or 
young woman. Those behind me have probably in the 
main settled this question. Those who have passed into 
middle manhood and middle womanhood are about what we 
shall always be, and there is but little left of interest, as 
their characters are all developed. 

" But to your young and your yet unformed natures, no 
man knoi^s the possibilities that lie before you in your 
hearts and intellects; and, while you are working out the 
possibilities with that splendid leisure that you need, you 
are to be most envied. 1 congratulate you on your leisure. 
I commend you to treat it as your gold, as your wealth, as 
your treasure, out of which you can draw all possible treas- 
ures that can be laid down when you have your natures 
unfolded and developed in the possibilities of the future. 

" This place is too full of memories for me to trust my- 
self to speak upon, and I will not. But I draw again to- 
day, as I have tor a quarter of a century, life, evidence of 
strength, confidence, and affection from the people who 
gather in this place. I thank you for the permission to see 
you and meet you and greet you as I have done to-day." 



46 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD, 

Garfield " Photograplied " by "Gath"— A Remarkably Interesting Pen- 
Picture of tbe Great Man— His Physical, Social, Moral, 
and Intellectual Powers. 

The following exceedingly interesting description of Gen. 
Garfield was written by the celebrated "Gath" soon after 
Garfield's nomination as President: 

The writer has known Gen. Garfield pretty w^ell for 
thirteen years. He is a large, well-fed, hale, rnddy, brown- 
bearded man, weighing about 220 pounds, with Ohio Ger- 
man colors, blue eyes, military face, erect figure and shoul- 
ders, large back and thighs, and broad chest, and evidently 
bred in the country on a farm. His large mouth is full of 
strong teeth, his nose, chin, and brows are strongly pro- 
nounced, A large brain, with room for play of thought 
and long application, rises high above his clear, discerning, 
enjoying eyes. He sometimes suggests a country Samson, — 
strong beyond his knowledge, but unguarded as a school- 
boy. 

He pays little attention to the afiectation by which some 
men manage public opinion, and has one kind of behavior 
for all callers, which is the most natural behavior at hand. 
Strangers would think him a little cold, and mentally shy. 
On acquaintance he is seen to be hearty above every tiling, 
loving the life around him, his family, his friends, his State 
and country. Loving sympathetic and achieving people, 
and with a large unprofessing sense of the brotherhood of 
workers in the fields of progress, it was the feeling of sym- 
pathy and the desire to impart which took him for chief; 
while as to the pulj)it, or on the verge of it, full of all that 
he saw and acquired, he panted to give it forth, after it had 
passed through the alembic of his mind. 

Endowed with a warm temperament, copious expression, 
large, wide-seeing faculties, and superabundant health, he 
could study all night and teach or lecture all day,->and it 



HOME LIFE. 47 

was a providence that his neiglibors discovered he was too 
much of a man to conceal in the pulpit, where his docility 
and reverence had almost taken him. They sent him to the 
State Legislature, where he was when the war broke out, 
and he immediately went to the field, where his courage 
and painstaking parts, and love of open air occupation, and 
perfect freedom from self-assertion, made him the delio-ht 
of Rosecrans and George H. Thomas successively. He 
would go about any work they asked of him, was unseLfish 
and enthusiastic, and had steady, temperate habits, and his 
large brain and his reverence made everything novel to him. 

There is an entii-e absence of non-balance or worldliness 
in his nature. He is never indift'erent, never vindictive. 
A base action or ingratitude or cruelty may make him sad, 
but does not provoke retaliation, nor alter that faith in men 
or Providence which is a j^art of his sound stomach and 
athletic head. Garfield is simple as a child; to the ser- 
pent's wisdom he is a stranger. Having no use nor apti- 
tude with the weapons of coarser natures, he often avoids 
mere disputes, does not go to i)ublic resorts where men are 
familiar or vulgar, and the walk from his home in Wash- 
ington to the Capitol, and an occasional dinner out, com- 
prise his life. 

The word public servant especially applies to him. He 
has been the drudge of his State constituents, the public, 
the public societies, the moral societies, and of his party 
and country since 1863. Aptitude for public debate and 
public affairs are associated with a military nature in him. 
He is on a broad scale a schoolmaster of tlie range of Glad- 
stone, of Agassiz, of Gallatin. With as hon3st a heart as 
ever beat above the competitors of sordid ambition. Gen. 
Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him that 
he is poor, and yet has been accused of dishonesty. 

He has no capacity for investment, nor the rapid solution 



48 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

ot wealth, nor profound respect for tlie penny in and out 
of pound, and still is neither careless, improvident, nor 
dependent. The great consuming passion to equal richer 
people, and live finely, and extend his social power is as 
foreign to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a 
suspicious nor a high mettled man, and so he is taken in 
sometimes, partly from his obliging, unrefusing disposition. 
Men who were scheming imposed upon him as upon Grant,, 
and other men. The people of his district, who are quick 
to punish public venality or defection, heard him in his 
defense in 1873 and kept him in Congress and held up his 
hand, and hence he is by their unwavering support for 
twenty-five years candidate for President and a National 
character. 

Since John Quincy Adams no President has had Gar- 
field's scholarship, which is equally up to this age of wider 
facts. The average American, pursuing money all day 
long, is now presented to a man who had invariably put the 
business of others above his own, and worked for that 
alleged nondescript — the public — gratitude all his life. But 
lie has not labored without reward. The great nomination, 
came to-day to as pure and loving a man as ever wished well 
of anybody and put his shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. 

Garfield's big, boyish heart is pained to-night with the 
weight of his obligation, affection, and responsibility. To- 
day, as hundreds of telegrams came from everywhere, say" 
ing kind, strong things to him — such messages as only 
Americans in their rapid, good impulses pour upon a lucky 
friend — he w^as with two volunteer clerks in a room open- 
ing and reading, and suddenly his two boys sent him one — 
little fellows at school — and as he read it he broke down, 
and tried to talk, but his voice choked, and he could not see 
for tears. The clerks began to blubber, too, and people to 
whom they afterward told it. 



HOME LIFE. 49 

This sense of real great heart will be new to the country, 
and will grow if he gets the Presidency. His wife was one 
of his scholars in Ohio. Like him, she is of a New England 
family, transplanted to the West, a pure-hearted, brave, un- 
assuming woman ; the mother of seven or eight children, 
and, as he told me only a few weeks ago, had never, by any 
remark, brought him into the least trouble, while she was 
unstampedable by any clamor. 

He is the ablest public speaker in the country, and the 
most serious and instructive man on the stump. His in- 
stincts, liberal and right; his courtesy, noticeable in our 
politics; his aims, ingenuous; and his piety comes by na- 
ture. He leads a farmer's life, all the recess of Congress 
working like a field-hand, and restoring his mind by resting 
it. If elected, he will give a tone of culture and intelligence 
to the Executive ottice it has never yet had, while he has no 
pedantry in his composition, and no conceit whatever. 

Gen. Gartiekl may be worth $125,000, or a little more than 
Mr. Lincoln was when he took the office. His old mother, 
a genial lady, liv'es in his family, and his kindness to heron 
every occasion bears out the commandment of "Honor thy 
father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the 
land." 



A Splendid Record— Summary of Garfield's Labors— The Rewards of Industry. 

It is astonishing how much there is in the story of Gen. 
Garfield's life to excite the sympathy, appeal to the pride, 
and call out the commendation of young men and old men 
who believe in the dignity of American citizenship. 

In 1840, an orphan boy struggling along the prosaic dead 
level ot life on a farm; in 1847, working steadily under the 
hardships and drudgery of a canal-boatman's experience; in 
1849, an aspiring student, supporting himself at an acad- 

4 



50 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

emy; in 1S50, a teacher in a country school, earning money 
to forward his ambition to become an educated man; in 
1854, a stubborn student at college; in 1858, a young man 
struggling against the debts incurred in educating himself; 
in 1859, President of an educational institute and a State 
Senator; in 1860, influential as a man and prominent as a 
politician; in 1861, the Colonel of a Union regiment, and 
the commander of a brigade, driving forward with resistless 
energy into Eastern Kentucky; in 1862, a Brigadier Gen- 
eral, and then a Major General; in 1863, occupying Gid- 
dings' seat in Congress; re-elected in 1864, 1866, 1868, 
1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, and 1878, and for nearly all the 
time an acknowledged leader; elected United States Sen- 
ator in January, 1880, and nominated President in June. 

This is the ideal career of the ambitious or aspiring 
American boy. Here is a man who, beginning life as a 
poor boy, has in truth fought his way to distinction. Pure 
and courageous as a boy, ambitious and self-reliant as a 
young man, tireless and brave as a soldier, aggressive but 
even-tempered as a leader in Congress, Gen. Garfield has 
retained every friendship of his youth, held fast to every 
comrade of liis soldier experience, and commanded the 
respect of all his co-laborers in Congress. 

Garfield's life is the story of a young man who has suc- 
ceeded through his own etforts. ILu'iiig passed through 
all the trials common to boys and young men in this coun- 
try, he has achieved the distinction which we teach, as a 
part of our American system, all our boys to strive for. 
He is from the people and of the people, a pure, kind- 
hearted, tolerant, broad-spirited, and distinguished man. 

Such a life record is a source of pride to any man who 
thoroughly believes in the possibilities of the American 
system of education and government. It must be an ele- 
ment of streno-th to the Presidential candidate of any party, 



HOME LIFE. 



51 



and, judojed by this record, by his talent, experience, and 
spirit, Gariield should be a strong candidate for the Repub- 
lican party. 

It is a good sign when those who know a man best like 
him best. It is a good sign when those who have been 
most intimately associated with a man arise promptly and 
voluntarily to testily in his behalf. It is a good sign when 
men are attracted to another man because he is a man of 
heart and principle. 








52 



WAR RECORD. 



Garfield in War— How He Voluntered to put down the Rebellion, and was 
Promoted Interesting Incidents on the Field of Battle. 

Troops were being raised in Ohio early in 1S61, and 
Gen. Garfield at once notified (Governor Dennison of his 
desire to enter the service. Garfield was sent to New 
York by Governor Dennison to secure arms for the 
e(jni])nient of the Ohio troops, and u])on his return was 
oti'ered a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in a ])roposed regiment, 
which was never organized. 

In August, 1861, however, after McClellan's West 
Virginia campaign, Gen. Garfield was appointed Lieutenant 
Colonel of the Fortv-Second Oliio lieo-iment, for which had 
been recruited many of his old pupils at the Hiram 
Institute. Gen. (4arficld went diligently at work studying 
tactics, and after five weeks of camp life was promoted to 
the Colonelcy of his regiment, and started for the field. 

The regiment went first to Kentucky, where it reported 
to Gen. Buell, and Garfield was at once assigned the 
command of the Seventeenth Brigade, and ordered to drive 
the rebel forces, under IIum])hrey Marshall, out of Eastern 
Kentucky. Up to that date no active operations had been 
attempted west of the Blue Bidge Mountains, and Gen. 
Garfield found himself in command of four regiments of 
infantry and eight companies of cavalry, charged with the 

53 



54 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

important work of driving out of his native State an ofticer 
reported to be the ablest that Kentucky had given to the 
rebellion. 

Gen. Garfield had never seen a gnn tired in action, and 
had no knowledge of military service except what had been 
gained in a tew months' experience. Garfield moved 
rapidly up the valley, with a force numbering only 2,200, 
to meet an experienced olMcer with 5,000 well-equipped 
men; but Marshall retreated before him, and after a slight 
skirmish, Garfield found himself in possession of the 
enemy's camp and baggage. He pushed the pursuit, and 
was reinlorced by about 1,000 men. The fight that 
followed was severe at times, but on the whole desultory, 
and continued three days, until the troops had become 
practically disabled, because of a heavy rainstorm that 
flooded the mountain gorges, and made so strong a current 
in the rivers that Garfield's supplies were unable to reach 
him. 

The troops were almost out of rations, and the mountain- 
ous country was incapable of supporting them. Garfield 
went by land to the base of his supplies, and ordered a 
steamer to take on a cargo and move up to the relief ot his 
troops. Tlie Captain declared it was impossible; finally, 
Garfield ordered the Captain and his crew on board, 
stationed sentinels in the pilot-house, and, having gained a 
load, started up stream. The water in the usually shallow 
river was sixty feet deep, and the tree tops along the banks 
were submei'ged. 

The little vessel trembled from stem to stern at every 
motion ot the engines; the waters whirled her about as 
if she were a skiff, and the utmost speed that steam could 
give her was three miles an hour. When night fell, the 
Captain of the boat begged permission to tie up. To 
attempt ascending the fiood in the dark he declared was 



WAR RECORD. 55 

madness. But Cul. Garfield kept his place at the wheel. 
Finally, in one of the sndden bends of the river, they drove, 
with a full head of steam, into the hank. Every effort to 
back her off was in vain. Mattocks were procnred, and 
excavations were made aronnd the imbedded bow. Still 
she stnck. Garfield at last ordered a boat to be lowered to 
take a line across to the op])(jsite bank. The crew protested 
airainst ventnrinij; ont in the flood. The Colonel leaped 
into the boat and steered it over. A windlass of rails was 
hastily made, and with a long line the vessel was warped 
ofi', and once mo)'e was afloat. 

It was Saturday when they left Sandy Creek. All 
through that day and night, Sunday and Sunday night, the 
boat i)ushed her way against the curi-ent, Garfield leaving 
the wheel but eight hours of the whole time. At nine 
o'clock Monday they reached camp, and Garfield could 
scarcely escape being borne to headquarters on the 
shoulders of the men. 

During the nu>ntlis of January, Februaiy and March 
there were numerous encounters with mountain guerrillas, 
but the Union arms finally prevailed, and the bands of 
marauders were driven from the State. 

Just on the border, however, at the rough pass across the 
mountains known as round Cr;\]\ Humphrey Marshall still 
held a post of observation, willi a force of about 5 00 men. 
On the 14th of Mardi, Garfield started with 500 inlantry 
and a cou]fle of hundred cavalry against this detachment. 
The distance was forty miles. The roads were at their 
worst, but by evening of the next day he had reached the 
mountain two miles north of the gap. 

Next morning the cavalry were deployed up the gap 
road, while the infantry were led along an unfrequented 
path on the side of the mountain. A heavy snowstorm 
also helped to mask the movement. While the enemy 



56 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

were watching tlie cavalry, Garfield had led the infantry to 
within a quarter of a mile of their camp. Then an attack 
was ordered, the enemy taken by surprise, and a few volleys 
sent them in confusion down the side of the mountain into 
Yirginia. Considerable quantities of stores were captured. 

That night the victorious troops rested in the comfortable 
log huts built by the enemy, and the next morning burned 
them down. Six days afterward, the command was ordered 
to Louisville. These operations had been conducted with 
such energy and skill as to receive the special commenda- 
tion of the Government, and Col. Garfield was given a 
commission as Brigadier General. The discomfiture of 
Humphrey Marshall was a source of special chagrin to the 
rebel sympathizers of Kentucky, and Garfield took rank in 
the popular estimation among the most promising of the 
volunteer Generals. 

On his return to Louisville after the campaign, he found 
the army ot the Ohio already beyond Nashville, on its 
way to Gen. Grant's aid at Pittsburg Landing. He 
hastened after it, and assumed command of the Twentieth 
Brigade. He reached the field on Pittsburg Landing 
about one o'clock on the second day of the battle, and 
participated in the closing scenes. 

When Gen, Buell sought to prepare a new campaign, he 
assigned Gen, Garfield to the task of rebuilding the bridges 
and railroad from Corinth to Decatur. After performing 
the duty with great skill and energy, he found himself 
reduced by fever and ague, which he had contracted in the 
days of his tow-])atli service on the Ohio Canal, and went 
home on sick leave. 

Soon after he received orders to proceed to Cumbei'land 
Gap and relieve Gen. George W. Morgan of his command ; 
but he was too ill to leave his bed, and another officer was 
sent to the service. 



WAR RECORD. 57 

As soon as his health would permit, he was ordered to 
"Washington, where he was placed npon court-martial tor 
the noted trial ot Fitz John Porter. 

Gen. Gartield was one of the clearest and foremost in the 
conviction ot Porter's guilt, and had the bill to restore 
Porter ever been brought up in the House of Representa- 
tives, he would have made a determined opposition to its 
passage ; but Gen. Logan finished the shameful scheme in 
the Senate, and Gen. Garfield never had an opportunity to 
deli«ver a speech which he had prepared with great 
thoroughness and care. 

After the trial of Fitz John Porter, he was appointed 
Chief of Staff to Gen. Posecrans, and from the day of his 
appointment became the intimate associate and confidential 
adviser of his chief. Garfield's influence had become so 
important in shaping campaigns that he was always con- 
sulted, and during the successful campaigns that followed 
Ohickamauga he took an active part. 

Gen. Garfield's military career did not subject him to 
trials of a large scale. lie a])])r()ved himself a good inde- 
pendent commander in the small o])erations in Sandy 
Yalley. His camjjaign there opened our series of successes 
in the West. 

As a Chief of Staff he Avas unrivalled. There, as else- 
where, he was ready to accept the gravest responsibilities 
in following his\ convictions. The bent of his mind was 
judicial, and his judgment of military matters good. 

His record will stand for him a monument of courage, 
and his conduct at Chickamauga will never be forgotten by 
ii nation of brave men. 




58 STORIES AND SKEl CHES OF GARFIELD. 

Col. Garfield's First Great Battle— He Defeats Humphrey Marshall and Wins 
a Brigadier-Generalship. 

On the ITtli of December, 1861, Garfield left Camp 
Chase, Ohio, with his regiment (Forty-second Ohio) under 
orders for the Big Sandy Valley region in Eastern Ken-. 
tncky. Upon arriving in Louisvdlle he was invited by Gen. 
Buell to arrange his own campaign, and he accordingly pre- 
pared a plan, which was submitted to and approved by the 
commanding General. The next day he started for his 
field of operations with a command consisting of four 
regiments of infantry and about two hundred cavalry. 

The Big Sandy was reached and followed up for some 
sixty miles through a rough, mountainous region, his force 
driving the outposts of Gen. Humphrey Marshall before 
them for a considerable distance. 

On the 7th of January, 1862, he drove the enemy's cav- 
alry from Paintsville, after a severe skirmish, killing and 
wounding tw^enty-five of them. At a strong point, three 
miles above Paintsville, Marshall had prepared to make a 
stand, with 4,500 infantry, 700 cavalry, and two batteries 
ot six guns each; but, his cavalry being driven in, his 
courage tailed, and he hastily evacuated his works and 
retreated up the river. 

The rapid marching thus far had much exhausted Gen. 
Garfield's forces; still, he resolved to pursue, and, selecting 
1,100 (jf his best troops, he continued on to Prestonburg, 
a distance of fifteen miles. There he found the Rebels 
strongly posted on the crest of a hill, at once attacked 
them, and maintained the battle during five hours, the 
enemy's cannon meanwhile playing briskly. 

Although most of Garfield's troops were now under fire 
for the first time, their daring valor swept all before them. 
The Bebels were driven from every position, and, after de- 



WAR RECORD. 59 

stroying their stores, wagons, and camp equipage, they 
retreated in disorder to Pound Gap, in tlie Cumberland 
Mountains. This was the tirst brilliant achievement of the 
War in the West, and a most complete and humiliating 
defeat to tlie Rebels, their loss in killed and wounded 
amounting to two hundred and iifty, in addition to forty 
taken prisoners, while the Union loss was but thirty-two, 
all told. 

It is said that at the time of this battle, Gen. Garfield 
had in his possession a letter written a short time before 
by Humphrey Marshall to his wife, but intercepted by Gen. 
Buell and sent to Gen. Gariield, in which Marshall stated 
that he had five thousand effective men in his command. 
This letter General Garfield refrained from showing to his 
ofiicers and men until after the battle. His commission as 
Briii-adier dated from the battle of Prestonburg. 



Full details of Garfield's Povind-Gap Expedition-Strategy and Victory— Battle 
of Pittsburg Landing, Etc. 

About the middle of March he made his famous Pound- 
Gap expedition, for a proper understanding of which a few 
words descriptive of the locality will be necessary. Pound- 
Gap is a zig-zag opening through the Cumberland Moun- 
tains into Virginia, leading into a tract of fertile meadow- 
land lying between the base of the mountains and a stream 
called Pound Fork, which bends around the opening of the 
gap, at some little distance from it, forming what is called 
''tlie Pound." These names originated in this wise: This 
mountain locality was for a long time the home of certain 
predatory Indians, from which they would make periodical 
forays into X^irginia for plunder, and to which they would 
retreat as rapidly as they came, carrying with them the 
stolen cattle, which they would pasture in the meadow-land 



60 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

jnst mentioned. Hence, among tlie settlers it became 
known as "TlieFonnd," and from it tlie gap and stream 
took their names. After liis defeat at Prestonburg, as has 
been stated, Ilnmphrej Marshall retreated Avith his 
scattered forces through the gap into Yirginia. A foi-ce of 
500 rebels was left to guard the pass against any sudden 
incursion of Gen. Gai'tiehrs force, who, to make assurance 
doubly sure, had built directly across the gap a formidable 
breastwork, completely blocking up the way, aud behind 
which 500 men could resist the attack of as many thousand. 
Behind these works, and on the southwestern slope of the 
mountains, they had erected commodious cabins for winter 
quarters, where they spent their time in ease and comfort, 
occasionally — by way ot variety, and in imitation of their 
Indian predecessors — descending from their stronghold 
into Kentucky, greatly to the damage of the stock-yards 
and larders of the well-to-do tanners of that vicinity, and to 
the Light of their wives and children. 

Gen. Garfield determined to dislodge them from their 
position, and so put an end to their maurauding expe- 
ditions. He accordingly set out with a sufficient force, and 
after two days' forced march reached the base of the 
mountains a short distance above the gap. Of the strength 
of the reljels and their position he had been well informed 
by the spies he had sent out, who had penetrated to their 
very camp in the absence of the usual pickets, which were 
never thrown out by them, so secure did they feel in their 
mountain fortress. It would have been madness to enter 
the gap and attack them in front, and the General did not 
propose or attempt it. Halting at the foot of the mountains 
for the night, he sent his cavalry early the next morning to 
the mouth of the gap to menace the rebels and draw them 
from behind their defences. This they did, arriving at a 
given time and threatening an attack. The rebels jumped 



WAR RECORD. 61 

at the bait and at once caine out to meet them, our men 
rapidly retreating, and tlie rebels following until the latter 
M^ere some distance in front of their breastworks instead 
of behind them. Meantime, Gen. Garfield, with his 
infantry, had scaled the mountain-side, in the face of a 
blinding snow-storm, and, marching along- a narrow ridge 
on the summit, had reached the enemy's camp in the rear 
of his fortifications. A vigorous attack was now made, 
resulting in the complete route of the rebels, many of 
whom were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, and the 
remainder dispersed through the mountains. The General 
now reassembled his forces, and spent a comfortable night 
in the enemy's quarters, faring sumptuously on the viands 
there found. The next morning the cabins, sixty in 
number, were burned, the breastworks destroyed, and the 
General set out on his return to Piketon, which he reached 
the following night, luniiig been absent four days, and 
having marelied in that time about one hundred miles over 
a broken country. On his return he received orders from 
Gen. Buell, at Xashville, to report to him in person. 
Arriving at that place, he found that Buell had already 
begun his march towards Pittsburg Landing, and pushed 
on after him. 

Overtaking the army, he was placed in command of the 
Twelfth Brigade, and, with his command, participated in 
the second day's fight at Shiloh. lie was present through 
all the operations in front of Corinth, and, after the evacua- 
tion of that place, rebuilt, with his brigade, the bridges on 
the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and erected fortifica- 
tions at Stevenson. Throughout the months of July and 
August he was prostrated by se\-ere sickness, and, conse- 
(juently, was not in the retreat to Kentucky or the battles 
fought in that State. During his illness he wars assigned 
to the command of the forces at Cumberland Gap, but 



62 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

could not assume it. Upon liis recovery, lie was ordered to 
Wasliino'ton, and detailed as a member of the Fitz John 
Porter court martial, which occupied forty-live days, and in 
which his great abilities as a lawyer and a soldier were 
called forth and freely recognized. When the court 
adjourned he was ordered to report to Gen. Rosecrans, aijd 
by him was placed in the responsible position of Chief 
of Staff, though at first it had been intended to give him 
only the command of a division in the field. 



Gen. Garfield's Proclamation to the Citizens of Sandy Valley. 

On the 16th day of January, 1S()2, Garfield, then in 
command of the Union forces in Eastern Kentucky, issued 
the f Jlowino; address to the inhabitants: 

" Citizens of Sandy Valley: I have come among you to re- 
store the honor of the Union, and to bring back the old banner 
which you once loved, but whicli, by the machinations of evil 
men, and by mutual misunderstanding, has been disnonored among 
you. To those who are in arms against the Federal Government 
I offer only the alternate of battle or unconditional surrender. 
T)ut to those who have taken no part in this war, who are in no 
way aiding or abetting the enemies of this Union— even to those 
who hold sentiments averse to tlie Union, but will give no aid or 
comfort to its enemies — I offer the full protection of the Govern- 
ment, both in their persons and property. 

"Let those who have been seduced away from the love of their 
country to follow after and aid the destroyers of our peace lay 
down their arms, return to their homes, bear true allegiance to the 
Federal Government, and they shall also enjoy like protection. 
The armv of the Union wages no war of plunder, but comes to 
bring back the prosperity of peace. Let all peace-loving citizens 
Avho have tied from their homes return and resume again the pur- 
suits of peace and industry. If citizens have suffered from any 
outrages by the soldiers under my command, I invite them to make 
known their complaints to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed 
and the offenders punished. I expect the friends of the Union in 
this valley to banish from among them all i)rivate feuds, and let a 



WAB RECORD. ' 63 

liberal love of country direct their conduct toward those who 
have been so sadly estrayed and misguided, hoping that these days 
of turbulence may soon be ended and the days of the llepublic 
soon return. J, A. GARFIELD, 

"Colonel Commanding Brigade." 

Gen. Garfield moved liis forces to Piketon, Kv., 120 
miles above the mouth of the Eig Sandy. Here he re- 
mained several weeks; sending out, meanAvhile, expedition j 
in every direction wherever he could hear of a Rebel camp 
or band, and at length completely cleared the whole conn- 
try of the enemy. 



Heroic Conduct of Gen. Garfield on the Field of CMckamaugna— Driving Back 
Longstreet's Columns and Saving Gen. Thomas. 

Gen. Garfield was made a ^Eajor-General for " gallant 
and meritorious services at the battle of Chickamanga." 
"VYhat those services were may bo learned from the follow- 
ing extract from the history of the Fort)'-second Ohio In- 
fantry, page 18: 

Trying vainly to check the retreat [of Tlosecrans] Gen. 
Garfield was swept with his chief back beyond Rossville. 
But the Chief of Staff could not concede that defeat had 
been entire. He heard the roar of Thomas' guns on the 
left, and gained ])ei"missi(jn of liosecrans to go around 
to that (juarter and find the ^Vrmy of the Cuinber- 
land. While the commander busied himself with j)re- 
p-'/'ing a refuge at Chattanooga for his I'outed army, his 
Chief of Staff went back accompanied by a staff olhcer and 
a few orderlies, to find whatever ])art of the army still held 
its gi-ound and save what M'as lost. It Avas a ])(M'i]ous ride. 
Long before he reached Thomas one of his orderlies was 
killed. Almost alone he pushed on over the obstructed 
road, through ])ursners and pursued, found the heroic 
Tlumias encircled by fire, but still firm, told him of the 



64 &TOEIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

disaster on tlie right, and explained how he could withdraw 
his right wing and fix it upon a new line to meet Long- 
street's column. The movement was made just in time, 
but Thomas' line -was too short. It would not reach to 
the base of the mountain. Longstreet saw the gap, drove 
his column into it, and would have struck Thomas' column 
fatally in the rear. In that critical moment Gen. Gordon 
Granger came up with Steedman's division, which moved 
in heavy column, threw itself upon Longstreet, and after a 
terrific struggle drove him back. The dead and wounded 
lay in heaps where these two columns met, but the army 
of Gen. Thomas was saved. As night closed in around the 
heroic Army of the Cumberland, Gens. Garfield and 
Granger, on foot and enveloped in smoke, directed the 
loading and pointing of a battery of Kapoleon guns, whose 
flash, as they thundered after the retreating column 
of the assailants, was the last light that shone upon th© 
battlefield of Chickamauga. 

This ride of Garfield's was one of the gallantest acts o f 
the war, and so recognized at the time by the Government 
and people. It earned Garfield the lasting friendship and 
regard of Gen. Thomas and all associated with him, and 
o-ave him a name as a brave soldier which no malicious 
scribbler can now take away. 

A correspondent on the field, W. S. Furay, under date 
of Se^^tember 21, 1863, after describing the perilous con- 
dition of the Union Army, speaks of Garfield's ride and 
arrival on the battlefield, as follows : 

Just before the storm broke, the brave and high-souled 
Garfield was perceived making his way to the headquarters 
of Gen. Thomas. lie had come to be present at the final 
contest, and in order to do so had ridden all the way from 
Chattanooga, passing through a fiery ordeal upon the road. 
His horse was shot under him, and his orderly was killed 



WAR RECORD. 65 

by his side. Still lie had come through, he scarce knew 
how, and here he was to inspire fresh courage into the 
hearts of the brave soldiers, who w^ere holding the enemy 
at bay, to bring them words of greeting from Gen. Eose- 
crans, and to inform them that the latter was reore-anizinff 
the scattered troops, and, as fast as possible, would hurry 
them forward to their relief. 

Just upon the side of the hill, to the left, and in rear of 
the still smoking ruins of the liause, was gathered a group 
whose names are destined to be historical — Thomas, 
Win taker. Granger, Garfield, Steedman, Wood. Calmly 
they watched the progress of the tempest, speculated upon 
its duration and strength, and devised methoJs to break its 
fury. The future analyst will delight to dwell upon the 
characteristics and achievements of each member of this 
group, and even the historian of the present, hastening to 
the completion of his task, is constrained to pause a 
moment only to repeat their names — Whitaker, Garfield, 
Granger, Thomas, Steedman, Wood. 

The fight around the hill now raged with terror inex- 
perienced before, even upon this terrible day. Our 
soldiers were formed in two lines, and as each marched up 
to the crest and fired a deadly volley at the deadly foe, 
it fell back a little ways, the men lay down upon the 
ground to load their guns, and the second line advanced to 
take their place! They, too, in their turn retired, and 
then the lines kept marching back and forth, and deliver- 
ing their withering volleys, till the very brain grew dizzy 
as it \vatched them. And all the time not a man wavered. 
Every motion was executed with as much precision as 
though the troops were on a holiday parade, notwith- 
standing the flower of the rebel army were swarming 
around the foot of the hill, and a score of cannon were 
thuudering from three sides upon it. 

5 



STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 66 

But our troops are no longer satisfied with the defensive. 
Gen. Tnrcliin, at the head of his brigade charged into the 
rebel lines, and cut his way out again, bringing with him 
300 prisoners. Other portions of this brave band followed 
Turchin's example, nntil the legions of the enemy were 
fairly driven back to the ground they occupied previous to 
commencing the tight. Thus did 12,000 or 15,000 men, 
animated by heroic impulses, and inspired by worthy 
leaders, save from destruction the Army of the Cumber- 
land. Let the ISTation honor them as they deserve. 

Amono- those killed at this battle were: Gen. W. H. 
Lytle; Col. Grose, commanding a brigade in Palmer's 
division ; Col. Baldwin, commanding a brigade in Johnson's 
division; Major Wall, of Gen. Davis' staff; Capt. Eussell, 
A. A. G. on Gen. Granger's staff; Col. II. C. Heg, com- 
manding brigade in Gen. Davis' division; 'Capt. Tinker, 
of the Sixth Ohio, and Capt. Parshall, of the Thirty-fifth 
Ohio. 



Closing Scenes in Garfield's War Record — Why He Left the Army. 

In 1862, while still an officer in the army, he was elected 
a Representative in Congress from Ohio, from the old Gid- 
diness district. About the same time he was sent to "Wash- 
ington as the bearer of dispatches. He there learned for 
the first time of his promotion to a Major-Generalship of 
volunteers " for gallant and meritorious conduct at the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga." He might have retained this posi- 
tion in the army; and the military capacity he had dis- 
played, the high favor in which he was held by the Gov- 
ernment, and the certainty of his assignment to important 
commands, seemed to augur a brilliant future. He was a 



WAR RECORD. 



67 



poor man, too, and the Major-General's salary was more 
than do^ble that of the Congressman. But, on mature re- 
flection, he decided that the circumstances under which the 
peoj)le had elected him to Congress in a measure compelled 
him to obey their wishes. He was furthermore urged to 
enter Congress by the officers of the army, who looked to 
him for aid in procuring such military legislation as the 
country needed and the army required. Under the belief 
that the path of usefulness to the country lay in the direc- 
tion in which his constituents had pointed, Gen. Garfield 
sacrificed what seemed to be his personal interests, and, on 
the 5th of December, 1863, resigned his commission, after 
nearly three years' service, to enter Congress. 




"tr*w l_'.»_"r„ 



;tr-"faoJC^ 



SPEECHES. 



Gen. Garfield is Called to the Halls of Congress from the Fields of War— How 

it was Done— Early Experience of the Farmer Boy 

on the Floor. 

The Congressional District in which Garfield lived was 
the one long made famous by Joshua R. Giddings. The 
old anti-slavery champion grew careless of the arts of poli- 
tics toward the end of his career, and came to look upon a 
nomination and a re-election as a matter of course. 

His over-confidence was taken advantage of in 1858 by 
an ambitious lawyer named Ilutchins to carry a conven- 
tion against him. The triends of Giddings never forgave 
Hutchins, and cast about for a means of defeating him. 
The old man himself was comfortably quartered in his Con- 
sulate at Montreal, and did not care to make a fight to get 
back to Congress. So his supporters made use of the pop- 
ularity of Gen. Garfield and nominated him when he was 
in the field without asking his consent. This was in 1862. 

AVhen he heard of the nomination Garfield reflected that 
it would be fifteen months before the Congress would meet 
to which he would be elected, and believing, as did every- 
one else, that the war could not possibly last a year longer, 
concluded to accept. I have often heard him, says a friend, 
express regret that he did not help fight the war through, 
and say that he never would have left the army to go to 

69 



7o STORIES AND SKE2 CHES OF GARFIELD. 

Congress liad lie foreseen that the struggle would continue 
beyond the year 1863. He continued his military service 
up to the time Congress met. 

He was elected to succeed Joshua E.. Giddings, who had 
served for twenty years as the representative from the dis- 
trict composed of the large and prosperous counties in 
ISlortheastern Ohio. He resigned from the army under the 
belief that the path of usefulness to his country lay in the 
direction of Congress rather than the military service. He 
sacrificed what seemed to, be his personal interest, and 
resigning his commission he entered the Thirty-eiglith 
Congress. Before taking his seat he was promoted to 
Major General of volunteers. 

On entering Congress, in December, 1863, Gen, Garfield 
was placed upon the Committee on Military Afiairs with 
Schenck and Farnsworth, who were also fresh from the 
field. He took an active part in the debates of the House, 
and won a recognition which few new members succeed in 
gaining. 

He was not jDopular among his fellow members during 
his first term. They thought him something of a pedant 
because he sometimes showed his scliolarship in his 
speeches, and they were jealous of liis prominence. His 
solid attainments and able social qua! ;:ies enabled him to 
overcome this prejudice during his second term, and he be- 
came on terms of close friendship with the best men in 
both Houses. 

His committee service during his second term was on the 
Ways and Means, which was quite to his taste, for it gave 
him an opportunity to prosecute the studies in finance and 
political economy which he had always felt a fondness for. 
He was a hard worker and a great reader in those days, 
going home with his arms full of books from the Congres- 
sional Library, and sitting up late of nights to read them. 



SPEECHES. 71 

It "vras then that he laid the foundations of the convictions 
on the subject of National Finance, which he has since held 
to tirnily amid all the storms of political ao-itation. He was 
renominated in 1S64, without opposition, but in ISGO Mr. 
Ilutchins, whom he had supplanted, made an eHbrt to de- 
feat him. Ilutchins canvassed the district thoroughly, but 
the convention nominated Gai-iield by acclamation. He 
has had no opposition since by his own party. 

In 1872 the Liberals and Democrats united to beat him, 
l)ut his majt)rity was larger than ever. In 1874 the Green- 
backers and Democrats combined and put up a popular 
soldier against him, but they made no impression on the 
result. The Ashtabula district, as it is generally called, is 
the most faithful to its representatives of any in the Korth. 
It has had but four members in half a centurv. 



Seventeen Years a Member of Congress -Garfield's Great Work in the 
Halls of Legislation A Triumphant Leader. 

In the Fortieth Congress Gen. GarheiQ was Chairman of 
the Committee on Military Affairs. In the Forty-tirst he 
was given the Chairmanship of I^anking and Currency, 
which he liked much better, because it was in the line of 
his financial studies. His next i)romotion was to the Chair- 
manship of the Appropriations Committee, which he held 
until the Democrats came into power in the House in 1875. 
His chief work on that committee was a steady and judi- 
cious reduction of the expenses of the Government. In 
all the political struggles in Congress he has borne a lead- 
ing part, his clear, vigoi'ous, and moderate style of argu- 
ment making him one of the most effective debaters in 
either House. 

When James G. Blaine went to the Senate in 1877 the 



72 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

mantle of Republican leadership was by common consent 
placed up(.)n Garlleld, and lie has worn it ever since. 

Recently Gen. Gartield was elected to the Senate to the 
seat vacated by Allen G. Thurman on the 4th of March, 
1881. He received the unanimous vote of the Republican 
caucus, an honor never given to any man of any party in 
the State of Ohio. Since his election he has been the re- 
cipient of many complimentary manifestations in Washing- 
ton and in Ohio. 

As a leader in the House he is more cautions and less 
dashing than Blaine, and his judicial turn of mind makes 
him too prone to look for two sides of a question for him 
to be an efficient partisan. When the issue fairly touches 
his convictions, however, he becomes thoroughly aroused 
and strikes tremendous blows. Blaine's tactics were to 
continually harrass the enemy by sharp-shooting surprises 
and picket firing. Garfield waits for an opportunity to 
deliver a pitched battle, and his generalship is shown to 
best advantage when the fight is a fair one and M'aged on 
grounds where each party thinks itself strongest. Then 
his solid shot of argument are exceedingly effective. On 
the stump Garfield is one of the very best orators in the 
Hepublican party. He has a good voice, an air of evident 
sincerity, great clearness and vigor of statement, and a way 
of knitting his arguments together so as to make a speech 
deepen its impression on the mind of the hearer until the 
climax is reached. 

Of his industry and studious habits a great deal might 
be said, but a single illustration will have to suffice here. 
Once during the busiest part of a very busy session at 
Washington, says a friend, " I found him in his library 
behind a big barricade of books. This was no unusual 
sight, but when I glanced at the volumes I saw that they 
were all different editions of Horace, or books relating to 
that poet." 



SPEECHES. 73 

" I lind I am overworked, and need recreation," said the 
General. 

" Now, my theory is that the best way to rest the mind 
is not to let it be idle, bnt to put it at something quite out- 
side the ordinary line of its employment. So I am resting 
by learning all the Congressional Library can show about 
Horace and the various editions and translations of his 
poems." 

Through the contests of the Fortieth Congress \vith the 
President he was firmly on the radical side. His health 
was seriously impaired by his laborious discharge of public 
duties, and at the close of the summer session, by the 
advice of his physician, he sailed for Europe. 

Since his first election Gen. Garfield has served consecu- 
tively in Congress, and has been the leader on the Republi- 
can side for the last five years ; his speeches are among the 
most efiective ever delivered by any man in any parliamen- 
tary body, and, while as a leader he has not been considered 
sufiiciently aggressive, his advice has always been carefully 
heeded, and has been effectual in holding back the more 
radical of the Republicans. 



Garfield on the Democracy— Extract from one of his Old Speeches— His Walk 
in the Democratic Graveyard. 

The following is an extract from a speech delivered by 
Gen Garfield, August 4th, 187(», in the JN"ational House 
of Representatives: 

Mr. Chairman: It is now time to inquire as to the fitness 
of this Democratic party to take control of our great nation 
and its vast and important interest for the next four years. 
I put the question to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. 
Lamar), what has the Democratic party done to merit that 
great trust ? He tries to show in what respects it would 



74 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

not be dangerous, I ask liim to shoM^ in what it would be 
safe ? 

I affirm, and I believe I do not misrepresent tlie great 
Democratic party, that in the last sixteen yeai's they have 
not advanced one great national idea that is not to-day 
exploded and as dead as Julius Caesar. And if any 
Democrat here will rise and name a great national doctrine 
his party has advanced, within that time, that is now alive 
and believed in, I will yield to him. (A pause.) In default 
of an answer, I will attempt to prove my negative. 

What were the great central doctrines of the Democratic 
party in the Presidential struggle of 1860? The followers 
of Breckenridge said slavery had a right to go wherever the 
Constitution goes. Do you believe that to-day? And is 
there a man on this continent that holds that doctrine 
to-day? Not one. That doctrine is dead and buried. The 
other wing of the Democracy held that slavery might be 
established in the Territories if the people wanted it. Does 
anybody hold that doctrine to-day? Dead, absolutely dead! 

Come down to 1S64. Your ])arty, under the lead of 
Tilden and Vallandigham, declared the experiment of war 
to save the Union was a failure. Do you believe that 
doctrine to-day? That doctrine was shot to death by the 
guns of Farragut at Mobile, and driven, in a tempest of 
fire, from the valley of the Shenandoah by Sheridan, less 
than a month after its birth at Chicago. 

Come down to 1868. You declared the constitutional 
amendments revolutionary and void. Does any man on 
this floor say so to-day? If so, let him rise and declare it. 

Do you believe in the doctrine of the Broadhead letter 
of 1868, that the so-called constitutional amendments should 
be disregarded? No; the gentleman from Mississippi 
accepts the results of the war! The Democratic doctrine 
of 1868 is dead! 



SPEECHES. 75 

I walk across tliat Democratic camping-ground as in a 
graveyard. Under vaj feet resound the hollow echoes of 
tlie dead. There lies slavery, a black marble column at the 
head of its grave, on which I read: Died in tlie flames of 
the civil war; loved in its life; lamented in its death; 
followed to its bier by its only mourner, the Democratic 
party, but dead! And here is a double grave: sacred to 
the memory of squatter sovereignty. Died in the cam- 
paign of 1860. On the reverse side: Socred to the memory 
of Dred Scott and the Breckenridge doctrine. Both dead 
at the hands of Abraham Lincoln! And here a monument 
of brimstone: Sacred to the memory of the rebellion; the 
war against it is a failure; T'dden et Yalhindigham 
fecerunt, A. D. 1SG4. Dead on the field of battle; shot to 
death by the million guns of the Re]mblic. The doctrine 
of secession; of State sovereignty, Dead. Expired in the 
flames of civil war, amid the blazing rafters of the con- 
federacy, except that the modern ^Eneas, fleeing out of the 
flames of that ruin, bears on his back another Anchises of 
State sovereignty, and brings it here in the person of the 
honorable gentleman from the Appomattox district of 
Virginia (Mr. Tucker). All else is dead! 

Kow, gentlemen, are you sad, are you sorry for these 
deaths? Are you not glad that secession is dead? that 
slavery is dead? that squatter sovereignty is dead? that the 
doctrine of the failure of the war is dead? Then you are 
glad that you were outvoted in 1860, in 1864, in 1868, and 
in lSTi\ If you have tears to shed over these losses, shed 
them in the grave-yard, but not in this House of living 
men. I know that many a Southern man rejoices that 
these issues are dead. The gentleman from Mississippi 
(Mr. Lamar) has clothed his joy with eloquence. 

Now. gentlemen, if you yourselves are glad that you have 
suftered defeat during the last sixteen years, will you not 



16 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

be equally glad when you sufler defeat next November? 
But pardon that remark; I regret it; I should use no 
bravado. 

Kow, gentlemen, come with me for a moment into 
the camp of the Republican party and review its career. 
Our central doctrine in 1860 was that slavery should never 
extend itself over another foot of American soil. Is that 
doctrine dead? It is folded away like a victorious banner; 
its truth is alive for evermore on this continent. In ISG'i 
we declared that we would put down tlie rebellion and 
secession. And that doctrine lives, and will live when the 
second Centennial has arrived. Freedom, national, uni- 
versal, and perpetual — our great constitutional amend- 
ments, are they alive or dead? Alive, thank the God that 
shields both liberty and union. And our national credit! 
saved from the assaults of Pendleton; saved from the 
assaults of those who struck it later, rising higher and 
higher at home and abroad: and only now in doubt lest its 
chief, its only enemy, the Democracy, should triumph in 
November. 



Garfield's Speech at the "Wisconsin Republican , Re-union— Outlining the 
Condition of the Country. 

At the Twenty -iifih Reunion of the Wisconsin Repub- 
licans, held at Madison, in July, 1S79, Gen. Garfield spoke 
as follows: 

This vast assembly must have richly enjoyed the review 
of the party's history presented here and celebrated here 
to-day, and not only a review of the past, but the hopeful 
promises made for the future of that great party. The 
Republican party, organized a quarter of a century ago, 
Avas made a necessity to carry out the pledges of the fathers 
that this should Ije a land of libertv. 



SPEECHES. 77 

There was in the earlj days of the Republic, a Re])ub- 
lican party that dedicated this very territory, and all our 
vast territory, to freedom, that promised much for schools, 
that abolished imprisonment for debt, and that instituted 
many wise reforms. But there were many conservatives 
in those days, whose measures degenerated into treason; 
and the Republican jmrty of to-day was but the revival of 
the Republican party of seventy years ago, under new and 
broader conditions of usefulness. 

It is well to remember and honor the greatest names of 
the Republican party. One of these is Joshua R. Giddings, 
who for twenty years was freedom's champion in Congress, 
and, fi-om a feel)le minority of two, lived to see a Republi- 
can Speaker elected, and himself to conduct him to the 
cJiair. Another is Abraham Lincoln, the man raised up by 
God for a great mission. No man ever had a truer appre- 
ciation of the principles of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, that great charter which it was the mission of the 
Republican party to enforce. 

There was a litness in the first platform of the Wiscon- 
sin Republicans that they based themselves upon the 
Declaration of Independence. While the Republicans, from 
the first, have been true to their principles, perfecting all 
they promised, as proved to-day by the whole record, the 
Democrats, on the other hand, steadily wrong, have been 
forced from one bad position to another. 

Can any Democrat point with pride to his party plat- 
forms of 1854, or find in them any living issue? The issues 
they then presented led us into war and involved us in a 
great National debt. Looking for the cause of that debt I 
say that the Democratic party caused it. 

We are, as a Nation, emerging from difficulties, and the 
Repul)lican jjarty alone can probably claim that the briglit- 
est page of our country's history has been written by the 



78 STORIEP AND I^KETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

true friends of freedom and progi'ess. The Republican 
party has yet work t^ do. "VVe arc confronted to-day in 
Congress by nearly the same spirit that prevailed in the 
years just before the war. 

They tell ns that the National Government is but the 
servant of the States; that wo shall not interpose, as a 
Kation, to guarantee an honest election in a State; that if 
we will interpose, they will deny appropriations. Is this 
less dangerous than their position in 1861? Have we no 
interest except in local elections, no power to guard the 
ballot-box and protect ourselves against outrages upon it? 
Why does the South make this issue? I answer: They 
have a solid South, and only need to carry Ohio and JSTew 
York to elect the President, and they trust to carry these 
States by the means they best know how to use. 

There are sentimentalists and optimists who may see no 
danger in this. There had been sentimentalists and opti- 
mists in the Republican party, but to-day all were stalwarts. 
President Hayes, when he came into office, was an optimist, 
but he saw all his hoj)es of conciliation frustrated and all 
his advances met with scorn. We all now stand together 
on the issue as one. 



Garfield's Celebrated Speecli at the Andersonville Reunion Held at Toledo, 
Ohio, Oct. 3, 1879— How the General Looks "Without Gloves!" 

The following is the full text of Gen. Garfield's speech at 
the Andersonville reunion at Toledo on Oct. 3, 1879. 

"My Comkades, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have ad- 
dressed a great many audiences, but I never before stood 
in the presence of '-no that I felt so wholly unworthy to 
speak to. A man Avho came through the war without 
being shot or made prisoner is almost out of place in 
such an assemblage as this. 



SPEECHES. 79 

"While I liave listened to yon this evening I have re- 
membered the ^vords of the distinguished English- 
man, who once said, ' that he was willing to die for 
his country.' N^ow to say that a man is willing to die 
for his country is a good deal, but these men who sit before 
us have said a great deal more than that. I would like to 
know where the man is that would calmly step out on the 
platform and say : ' I am ready to starve to death for my 
country.' That is an enormous thing to say, but there 
is a harder thing than that. Find a man, if you can, who 
will walk out Ijefore this audience and say: ' I am willing 
to become an idiot for my country.' How many men 
could you find who would volunteer to become idiots for 
their country? 

Kow let me make this statement to you, fellow-citizens: 
One liundred and eighty-eight thousand such men as this 
were captured by the rebels who were fighting our govern- 
ment. One hundred and eighty-eight thousand! How 
many is that? They tell me there are 4,500 men and 
women in this building to-night! Multiply this mighty 
audience by forty and you will have about 188,000. 
Forty times this great audience were prisoners of war to 
the enemies of our country. And to every man of that 
enormous company there stood open night and day the 
offer: 'If yon will join the rebel army, and lift up your 
hand against your flag, you are free.' " 

A voice—" That's so." 

Gen. Garfield— '" And you shall have food, and you 
shall have clothing, and you shall see wife, and mother, and 
child.' " 

A voice — '* We didn't ao it, though." 

Gen. Garfield — "And do you know that out of that 
188,000 there were less than 3,000 who accepted the 
offer? And of those 3,000, perhaps nine-tenths of them 



80 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

did it with the mental reservation that they would desert at 
the first hour — the first moment there was an opportunity." 

Voices— "That's so." 

Gen. Garfield— " But 185,000 out of the 188,000 said: 
' No ! not to see wife again ; not to see child again ; not to 
avoid starvation; not to avoid idiocy, not to avoid the 
most loathsome of deaths, will I lift this hand against my 
country forever.' Now, we praise the ladies for their 
patriotism; we praise our good citizens at home for their 
patriotism; we praise the gallant soldiers who fought and 
fell. But what were all these things compared with that 
yonder? I bow in reverence. I would stand with 
undsandaled feet in the presence of such heroism and such 
sufiering; ^^and I would say to you. fellow-citizens, such 
an assemblage as this has never yet before met on this great 
earth. 

" Who have reunions? I will not trench upon forbidden 
ground, but let me say this: Nothing on the earth and 
under the sky can call men together for reunions except 
ideas that have immortal truth and immortal life in them. 
The animals fight. Lions and tigers fight as ferociously 
as did you. Wild beasts tear to the death, but they never 
have reunions. Wliy? Because wild beasts do not fight 
for ideas. They merely fight for blood. 

All these men, and all their comrades went out inspired 
by two immortal ideas. 

First, that liberty shall be universal in America. 

And, second, that this old flag is the flag of a Nation, 
and not of a State; that the Nation is supreme over all 
people and all corporations. 

Call it a State; call it a section; call it a South; call it 
a North; call it anything you wish, and yet, armed with 
the nationality that God gave us, this is a Nation against 
all State-sovereignity and secesson whatever. It is the 



HOME LIFE. 81 

immortality of that truth that makes these reunions, and 
that makes this one. You believed it on the battle-held, 
you believed it in the hell of Andersonville, and you believe 
it to-day, thank God; and you will believe it to the last 
gasp." 

Voices—'' Yes, we will." '^ That's so," etc. 

Gen. Gariield — '* Well, now, tellow-citizens and fellow- 
soldiers — but I am not w^orthy to be your fellow in this 
work. I thank you for having asked me to speak to you. 
[Cries of 'Go on! ' 'Go on I ' 'Talk to us some more,' etc.] 

I want to say simj)ly that 1 have had one opportunity 
only to do you any service. I did hear a man who stood 
bv my side in the halls of the legislation — the man that 
offered on the floor of Congress the resolution that any man 
who commanded colored troops should be treated as a 
jnrate, and not as a soldier; as a slave-stealer, and not as 
a soklier — I heard that man calmly say, with his head up 
in the light, in the presence of this American people, that 
the Union soldiers were as well treated, and as kindly 
treated in all the Southern prisons as were the rebel 
soldiers in all the Northern prisons." 

Voices—" Liar," " Liar! " " He was a liar." 

Gen. Garfield — " I heard him declare that no kinder men 
ever lived than Gen, Winder and his Commander-in-Chief, 
Jeff Davis. [Yells of derision, hisses, etc.] And I took 
it upon myself to overwhelm him with the proof [a roll of 
applause begins], with the proof of the tortures you 
suffered, the wrongs done to you, were suffered and done 
with the knowledge of the Confederate authorities from 
Jefferson Davis do^\^l — [great applause, waving of hats, 
veterans standing in their chairs and cheering]— that it 
was a part of their policy to make you idiots and skeletons, 
and to exchange your broken and shattered Indies and 
dethroned minds for strong, robust, well-fed rebel prisoners. 



82 STORIES AND SKET'^IIES OF GARFIEFD. 

That policy, I affirm, lias never liad its parallel for atrocity 
in the civilized world." 

Yoice— " That's so." 

Gen. Garfield—" It was never heard of in any land since 
the dark ages closed upon the earth. While history lives 
men have memories. "W"o can foi-give and forget all other 
things before wc can forgive and forget this. 

Finally, and in conclusion, I am willing, for one — and 
I think I speak for thousands of others — I am willing to 
see all the bitterness of the late war buried in the grave of 
our dead. I would be willing that we should imitate the 
condescending, loving kindness of him who planted the 
green grass on the battlefields aud let the fresh flowers 
bloom on all the graves alike. I would clasp hands with 
those who fought against us, make them my brethren, and 
forgive all the past, only on one supreme condition: that 
it be admitted in practice, acknowledged in theory, 
that the cause tor which we fought, and you suffered, was 
and is, and forevermore will be right, eternally right." 
[Unbounded enthusiasm.] 

Voices— "That's it," "That's so," etc. 

Gen. Garfield — " That the cause for which they fought 
was, and forever will be, the cause of treason and wrong. 
[Prolonged applause.] Until that is acknowledged my 
hand shall never grasp any rebel's hand across any chasm, 
however small." [Great applause and cheers.] 




SPEECHES. 83 

Garfield's Great Speech at Columbus, Acknowledging His Election as 
United States Senator. 

On the 14tli of Jauiiaiy, 1S80, Gen. Garfield arrived in 
Columbus from Washington. lie had that day been form- 
ally declared United States Senator from Ohio, his noruina- 
tion by the Republican Legislative caucus having taken 
place the week before. In an informal reception which 
took place in the Ilall of the House of Eepresentatives dur- 
ing the evening, the General made the following admirable 
speech: 

Fellow Citizens: I should be a great deal more than a 
man, or a great deal less than a man, if I were n(jt extremely 
gratified by this mark of your kindness you have shown me 
in recent days. I did not expect any such a meeting as 
this. I knew there was a greeting awaiting me, but did 
not expect so cordial, generous, and general a greeting with- 
out distinction of party, without distinction of interests, 
as I have received to-night. And you will allow me, in a 
moment or two, to speak of the memories this Chamber 
awakens. 

Twenty years ago this last week I first entered this Cham- 
ber and entered U})on the duties of public life, in which I 
have been every hour since that time in some capacity or 
other. I left this Chamber eighteen years ago, and I l)e- 
lieve I have never entered it since that time. But the place 
is familiar, though it was peopled not with the taces that I 
see before me here to-night alone, but with the faces of 
hundreds of peoi)le that I knew here twenty years ago, a 
large number of whom are gone from earth 

It was here in this Chamber that the word was first 
brought of the firing on Fort Sumter. 1 remember dis- 
tinctly a gentleman from Lancaster, the late Senator 
Schleigh — Gen. Schleigh, who died not very long ago— I 
remend)er distinctlv as he came down this aisle, with all the 



84 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

look of agony and anxiety in liis face, informing us that the 
guns had opened upon Sumter. I remember that one week 
after that time, on motion of a leading Democratic Senator, 
who occupied a seat not far from that position (pointing to 
the Democratic side of the Chamber), that we surrendered 
this Chamber to several companies of soldiers, who had 
come to Columbus to tender their services to the imperiled 
Government. They slept on its carpets and on these sofas, 
and quartered for two or three nights in this Chamber 
while waiting for other quarters outside of the Capitol. 

All the early scenes of the War are associated with this 
place in my mind. Here were the musterings — here was 
the center, the nerve center, of anxiety and agony. Here 
over 80,000 Ohio citizens tendered their services in the 
course of three weeks to the imperiled nation. Here, 
where we had been fighting our political battles with sharp 
and severe partisanship, there disappeared, almost as if by 
magic, all party lines ; and from ])oth sides of the Chamber 
men went out to take their places on the field of battle. I 
can see now, as I look out over the various seats, where 
sat men who afterward became distinguished in the service 
in high rank, and nobly served their constituency and hon- 
ored themselves. 

We now come to this j^lace, while so many are gone; but 
we meet here to-night with the war so far back in the dis- 
tance that it is an almost half-forgotten memory. We 
meet here to-night with a nation redeemed. We meet here 
to-night under the flag we fought for. We meet with a 
glorious, a great and growing Republic, made greater and 
more glorious by the sacrifices through which the country 
has passed. And coming here as I do to-night brings the 
two ends of twenty years together, with all the visions of 
the terrible and glorious, the touching and cheerliil, that 
have occurred during that time. 



SPEECHES. 85 

I came here to-niglit, fellow-citizens, to thank this Gen- 
eral Assembly for their great act of confidence and compli- 
ment to me. I do not nndervalue the office that yon have 
tendered to me yesterday and to-day; but I say, I think, 
without any mental reservation, that the manner in which 
it was tendered to me is far higher to me, far more desira- 
ble, tlian the thing itself That it has been a voluntary 
gift of the General Assembly of Ohio, without solicitation, 
tendered to me because of their confidence, is as touching 
and as high a ti'ibute as one man can receive from his fel- 
low-citizens, and in the name of all my friends, for myself, 
I ffive vou mv thanks. 

I recognize the im])ortance of the place to which you 
have elected me; and I should be base if I did not also re- 
cosrnize the o-reat man whom vou have elected me to 
succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger-minded, 
broader-minded men in the records of our history than that 
of Allen G. Thurnuin. Difi'cring widely from him, as I 
have done in politics, and do, I recognize him as a man 
high in character and great intellect; and I take this occa- 
sion to refer to what I have never before referred to in 
public: that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, 
when the air was filled with all scn-ts of missies aimed at the 
character and reputation of public men, when it was even for 
his party interest to join tho general clamor against me and 
my associates. Senator Thurman said in i)ublic, in the cam- 
paign, on the stump — when men are as likely to say unkind 
tilings as at any place in the world — a most generous and 
earnest word of defense and kindness for me which I shall 
ne\-er forget so long as I live. I say, moreover, that the 
fiowers that bloom over the garden wall of party politics are 
the sweetess and most fragant tliat bloom in the gardens of 
this world; and where we can fiirly jiluck them and enjoy 
their iVagrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. 

And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly, without 



86 STOBIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

distinction of party, I recognize this tribute and compli- 
ment paid to me to-niglit. Whatever my own course may 
be in the future, a large share of the inspiration of my 
future public life will be drawn from this occasion' and 
these surroundings, and I shall feel anew the sense of ob- 
ligation that I feel to the State ot Ohio. Let me venture 
to point a single sentence in regard to that work. During 
the twenty years that I have been in public life, almost 
eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have 
tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or other- 
wise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my conviction 
at whatever personal cost to myself. 

I have represented for many years a district in Congress; 
whose approbation I greatly desired; but though it may 
seem, perhaps, a little egotistical to say it, I yet desired 
still more the approbation of one person, and his name was 
Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep 
with, and eat with, and live with, and die with; and if I 
could not have his approbation I should have bad compan- 
ionship. And in this larger constituency which has called 
me to represent them now, I can only do what is true to 
my best self, applying the same rule. 

And if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the confi- 
dence of this larger constituency, I must do what ev^ery 
other fair-minded man has to do — carry his political life in 
his hand and would take the consequences. But I must 
follow^ what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my life ; 
and with that view of the cose, and with that much personal 
reference, I leave that subject. 

Tlianking you again, fellow-citizens, members of the 
General Assemblr, Republicans as well as Democrats — all, 
party men as I am — thanking you both for what you have 
done and for this cordial and manly greeting, I bid you 
good-night. 



SPEECHES. 87 

Gen. Garfield en the Floor of the Great Chicago Convention -Full Text of 
His Eloquent Speech Nominating John Sherman For President- 
Delivered June 5, 1880. 

It was after full fifteen miiii;tes ot applause for a pre- 
eeedino; candidate, in an assembly of 15,000 souls, that Gen. 
Garfield arose and calmly addressed the Convention at 
Chicago as follows: 

"Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordinary 
scenes of this Convention with deep solicitude. No emo- 
tion touches my heart more quickly than a sentiment in 
honor of a <>;reat and noble character. But as I sat on these 
seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me 
vou were a human ocean in a tem])est. I have seen the sea 
lashed into fury and tossed into a spray, and its grandeur 
moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that 
it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from 
which all heights and dejAhs are measured. When the 
storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, 
when sunshine bathes its smooth surface, then the 
astronomer and surveyer takes the level from which he 
measures all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen 
of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the 
healthful pulse of the people. 

'• When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of 
this hour have subsided, we shall find the calm level of 
public opinion, below the storm, from which the thoughts 
of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their 
final action will be determined. Not here, in this brilliant 
circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the 
destiny of the Bepublic to be decreed; not here, where I 
see the enthusiastic laces of 756 delegates waiting to cast 
their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their 
party; but by 5,000,000 Kepublican firesides, where the 
thouo-htful fathers, with wives and children about them, 



88 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

with the cahn tlioiights inspired by love of home and love 
of country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the 
future, and the knowledge of the great men who have 
adorned and blessed our i^ation in days gone by,— there 
God prepares the verdict that sliall determine the wisdom 
of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, 
but in the sober quiet that comes between now and 
November, in the silence of deliberate judgment, will this 
great question be settled. Let us aid tiiem" to-night. 

"But now, gentlemen of the Convention, what do we 
want? Bear with me a moment. Hear me for this cause, 
and, for a moment, be silent that you may hear. Twenty- 
five years ago this Eepublic was wearing a triple cliain of 
bondage. Long familiarity with the traffic in the body 
and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a 
majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State 
sovereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and 
most l)eneficent powers of the National Government, and 
the grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin Terri- 
tories of the West and dragging them into the den of 
eternal bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was 
born. It drew its first inspiration from the fire of liberty 
which God has lighted in every man's heart, and which ail 
the powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly 
extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver and 
save the Republic. It entered the arena when the 
beleaguered and assailed Territories were struggling for 
freedom, and drew around them the sacred circle of liljerty, 
which the demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It 
made them free forever. 

" Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young 
party, under the leadership of that great man, who, on this 
spot, twenty years ago, was made its leader, entered the 
National Capital and assumed the high duties of the Gov- 



SPEECHES. 89 

eminent. The light which shone from its banner dispelled 
the darkness in which slavery had enshronded the Capitol 
and melted the shackles of every slave, and consuine<l, in 
the fire ol liberty, every slave-pen within the shadow of the 
Capitol. Our National industries, by an impoverishing 
policy, were themselves prostrated, and the streams ot 
revenue flowed in such feeble currents that the Ti-casury 
itself was well nigh empty. The money of the people was 
the wretched notes of 2,000 uncontrolled and iri-esponsible 
State bank corporations, which were tilling the country with 
a circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the life of 
business. 

" The Eepublican party changed all this. It abolished 
the l)abel of confusion and gave the country a currency as 
national as its flag, based upon the sacred faith of the 
people. It threw its protecting ai-m around our great 
industries, and they stood erect as with new life. It filled 
with the spirit of true nationality all the great functions 
of the Government. It confronted a rebellion of unex- 
ampled magnitude, with a slavery behind it, and, under 
God, fought the final battle of liberty until victory was 
M'on. Then, after the storms of battle, were heard the 
sweet, calm words of peace uttered by the conquering 
ISTation, and saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate 
at its feet : 'This is our only revenge, that you join us in 
lifting to the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine 
like stars forever and forever, the immortal principles of 
truth and justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free 
and stand equal before the law.' Then came the questions 
of reconstruction, the public debt, and the public faith. 

"In the settlement of these questions the Repub- 
lican party has completed its twenty-five years of 
glorious existence, and it has sent us liere to prepare it for 
another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we 



90 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

do this great work? We cannot do it, my friends, bj assail- 
ing our Republican brethren. God forbid that I should say 
one word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of 
our heroes. This coming fight is our Thermopylte. We 
are standing upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts 
are united we can withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes, 
of Democracy can bring against us. 

Let us hold our ground this one year, for the stars in 
their courses fight for us in the future. The census to be 
taken this year will bring reinforcements and continued 
power. But in order to win this victory noM", we want the 
vote ol every Eepublican, of every Grant Republican in 
America, of eveiy Blaine man and every anti-ljlaine man. 
The vote of every follower of every candidate is needed to 
make our success certain; therefore, I say gentlemen and 
brethren, we are here to calmly counsel together, and inquire 
what we shall do. A voice: 'Nominate Garfield.' [Gieat 
applause.] 

" We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the 
achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man 
who, standing on a mountain height, sees all the achieve- 
ments of our past history, and carries in his heart the mem- 
ory of all its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, pre- 
pares to meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want 
one who will act in no spirit of unkindness toward those we 
lately met in battle. The Republican party ofiers to our 
brethren of the South the olive branch of peace, and wishes 
them to return to brotherhood, on this supreme condition 
that it shall be admitted, forever and forever more, that, in 
the war for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. 
[Cheers.] On that supreme condition we meet them as 
brethren, and no other. We ask them to share with us the 
blessings and honors of this great Republic. 

" Xow, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to pre- 



SPEECHES. 



91 



sent a name for jour consideration — tlie name of a man who 
was the comrade, and associate, and friend of nearly all 
tJiose noble dead whose faces look down n])on us from these 
walls to-night [cheers]; a man who began his career of pub- 
lic service twenty-Uve years ago, whose first duty was cour- 
ageously done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, 
when the first red drops of tliat bloody shower began to fall 
which finally swelled into the deluge of war. fie bravely 
stood by young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in 
the National Legislature, through all subsequent time his 
pathway has been marked by labors performed in every de- 
partment of legislation. 

You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty -five 
years of the national statutes. Not one great beneficent 
statute has been placed on our statute books with- 
out his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided 
these men to formulate the laws that raised our 
great armies and carried us through the war. His hand 
was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that restored 
and brought back the unity and married calm of the 
States. His hand was in all that great legislation that 
created the war currency, and in a greater work that 
redeemed the promises of the government, and made the 
currency equal to gold. And when, at last called from the 
halls of legislation into a high executive ofiice, he displayed 
that experience, intelligence, firmness, and poise of 
character which has carried us through a stormy period of 
three years. With one-half the public press crying 
'Crucify him!' and a hostile Congress seeking to prevent 
success — in all this he remained unmoved until victory 
crowned him. 

The great fiscal affairs of the notion and the great 
business interests of tlie country he has guarded and pre- 
served, while executing the law o± resumption, and 



92 



STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 



effecting its olrject, without a jar, and against the false 
prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy 
of this Continent. He has shown himself able to meet 
with calmness the great emergencies of the government tor 
twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous hights of 
public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne 
liis breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of " that 
fierce light that beats against the throne," but its fiercest 
ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain on his shield. 
I do not present him as a better Republican, or as a 
better man than thousands of others we honor, but I pre- 
sent him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate 
John Sherman, of Ohio. 




THE NOMINATION. 

Comparative Statement of Ballots. 
The number of ballots cast at Cbicago is by no means 
nnprecedeuted. In 1852 General Scott was nominated on 
thefifty-tliird, and General Pierce on the forty-ninth ballot. 
The ill-omened Charleston Convention in ISGO cast iifty- 
seven ineffectual ballots, and went to pieces without nomi- 
nating; anybody, ^'^o Kepublican Convention, however, 
has ever cast ss many ballots as were recorded at Chicago. 
Freemont was nominated on the first ballot, Lincoln on the 
third for his first term and on the first for his second term, 





i*»f»- 



[ExposiUon Building, in which was held the National Republican Convention of 1880.] 

Grant on the first for each term, Greeley on the sixth, and 
Hayes on the seventh. The first National Convention ever 
held in the United States nominated Henry Clay in 1831. 
William AVirt, Mr. Van Buren, General Harrison and Mr. 
Clay were subsequently nominated on the first ballot. Mr. 
Polk retiuired nine, General Cass four, James Buchanan 
seventeen, and Horatio Seymour twenty-two ballots. 

At the Chicasro Convention Gen. Garfield received 399 
votes on the thi^-tv-sixth ballot. Up to the thirty-fourth, 
liis hi-hest number was two. The following tables show 
the essential points connected with Garfield's nomination: 

93 



94 



STORIES AND SKEICHES OF GARFIELD. 



The Break to Garfield— Thirty-fourth Ballot. 



States and Terri- 
tories. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

]Missouri 

^Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina 

Ohio . 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Khode Island 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Arizona 

Dakota 

District of Columbia. 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexico 

Utah 

Washington 

Wyoming 



16 
12 



8 

8 

24 



4 
20 

8 

7 
4 
1 



29 



50 



11 

17 
13 

16 
1 



Total 312 275 107 



12 



9 

10 

20 

22 

6 

1 

4 

14 



21 
6 
4 

6 

6 

10 

14 

18 

9 
6 
22 
8 
1 
4 
1 



21 



14 

34 



10 



16 



n 



4 29 18 



STORIES AXD SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. i.^ 

TnrRTY-sixTir and Last Ballot-Garfield :N^ominated. 



Statics and TEKrviToniEs. 



Alabauiii 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delawart! 

Florida 

■Georf>ia . . 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

JNIaine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michij^au 

^linnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Neltraska 

Nevada 

New Ilanipsliire 

New .Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina 

Ohio* 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

ISoutli Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West \'irginia 

AVisconsin 

Arizona 

Dakota 

District of Columbia. 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexica 

Utah 

Washington 

Wyoming 



Totals. 



]-J 

12 
G 
12 
(J 
8 
22 
42 
;!0 
22 
10 
24 
10 
14 
10 
20 
22 
10 
10 

;K) 





10 

IS 

70 

20 

4;! 


.58 

8 
14 
24 
10 
10 
22 
10 
20 



8 
1.") 

i;j 

10 

1 



12 



8 

8 

24 

1 

4 
20 

8 

(5 
4 
1 

2 

7 

29 



4 

12 



10 




42 



*Gen. Garfield not votiiu 



96 



THE NOMINATION 
Thirty-Fifth Ballot. 



States and Ter- 
ritories. 



Al;ib;iraa 

Arkansas 

r'aiifornia 

(Jolorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire. . 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina — 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Khode Island 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia — 

Wisconsin 

Arizona 

Dakota 

District of Columbia 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Nexico 

Utah 

Washington 

Wyoming 



Totals. 



16 
12 



8 

8 

24 

1 

4 

20 

8 

7 
4 
1 
1 
8 
29 



50 




36 

11 
17 
13 

10 
1 



313 



3 

6 


10 

2 
22 

1 

4 

14 

3 

21 
6 
4 

G 

6 

10 

14 

IS 

9 

20 
8 
1 
4 
1 



1 

2 
1 

2.57 



4 

2 
21 



2 

2 

13 

34 



10 



27 



99 



16 



11 



the nomination. 
su:mmaey. 



Ballot. 



8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
V.\. 
14. 
15. 
1(3. 
17. 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
2.5. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
80. 
31. 
32. 
33. 
34. 
35. 
30. 



K 



304 
305 
305 

305 
30; 

305 
305 
306 

308 

30.': 

30; 
304 
305 
305 
300 
306 
303 
305 
305 
SOS 
305 
305 
304 
305 
302 
303 
306 
307 
305 
306 
308 
309 
309 
312 
313 
306 



284 
282 
282 
281 
281 
280 
281 
284 
282 
282 
281 
283 
285 
285 
281 
283 
284 
283 
279 
276 
270 
275 
275 
279 
281 
280 
277 
279 
278 
279 
276 
270 
276 
275 
257 
4 



93 
94 
93 
95 
95 
95 
94 
91 
90 
92 
93 
92 
89 
89 
88 
88 
90 
91 
96 
93 
96 
97 
97 
93 
94 
93 
93 
91 
116 
120 
118 
117 
110 
107 
99 
3 



35 


31 


36 


31 


3(i 


31 


3(i 


31 


35 


31 


32 


31 


35 


31 


35 


31 


35 


81 


86 


31 


35 


31 


35 


31 


36 


31 


3() 


31 


3^ 


31 


35 


12 


83 


11 


37 


11 


44 


11 


44 


11 


80 


11 


23 


11 


5 





o 



1 
1 
1 
1 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 

17 

50 

399 



O 





03 


zn 


PH 


a 




X 


«M 




O 


H 








q-i 


tH 


o 


i=l 


., 


03 


M 


M 






> 


fH 


cS 


C3 


fi 


M 



98 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. ' 

Enthusiasm on Fire— Making the Nomination of Gen. Garfield Unanimous 
at the Chicago Eepublican Convention— Speeches of Messrs. Conk- 
ling, Logan, Beaver, Hale, Pleasants, and Harrison. 

Immediately after G-en. Garfield had received the 399 
votes of the Chicago Convention, it was the desire of the 
body to make his nomination unanimous. This was 
effected amid the greatest enthusiasm, and called forth the 
following brief and eloquent speeches: 

SENATOR CONKLING, OF NEW YORK. 

Mr. Chairman — James A. Garfield, of Ohio, having re- 
ceived a majority of all the votes cast, I rise to move that 
he be unanimously presented as the nominee of this Con- 
vention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipates my mo- 
tion, and being on my feet, I avail myself of the opportun- 
ity to congratulate the Republican party upon the good- 
natured and the well-tempered rivalry which has distin- 
guished this animated contest. Well, gentlemen, I would 
speak louder, but having sat under the cool wind of these 
windows, 1 feel myself unable to. I was in the act to say, 
Mr. Chairman, that I trust that the zeal, the fervor, and 
now the unanimity seen in the Convention will be trans- 
planted to the field of the conflict, and that all of us who 
have borne a part against each other will find ourselves 
with equal zeal bearing the banner, and with equal zeal car- 
rying the lance of the Republican party into the ranks of 
the enemy. 

SENATOR LOGAN, OF ILLINOIS. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention — We 
are to be congratulated that we have arrived at a conclu- 
sion in reference to presenting the name of a candidate to 
become the standard-bearer of the Republican 23arty for 
President of the United States. In union and harmony 
there is strength. Whatever may have transpired in this 
Convention that may have momentarily marred the feel- 



THE N03IINATI0N. 99 

ings of any one here, I hope that in our conchision it will 
pass from our minds. I, sir, with the friends of, I think, 
one of the grandest men that ever graced the face of the 
earth [applause] stood ever here to light a friendly battle in 
favor of his nomination. But, sir, the Convention has 
chosen another leader. The men who stood by Grant's 
banners will be seen in the front of this contest on every 
Held. "We will go forward, sir, not with tied hands, not 
wnth sealed lips, not with bridled tongues, but to speak the 
truth in favor of the grandest party that has ever been or- 
ganized in this country, to maintain its principles, main- 
tain its power, and to preserve its ascendancy. And sir, 
with the leader you have selected, my judgment is victory 
will perch upon our banners. I, sir, as one of the repre- 
sentatives from tlie State of Illinois, second the nomination 
of James A. Garfield, of Ohio, and I hope it may be made 
unanimous. 

GEN. BEAVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The State of Pennsylvania having had the honor of first 
naming in this Convention the gentleman who has been 
nominated as the standard-bearer of the Republican party 
in the approaching national contest, I rise, sir, to second 
the motion which has been made to make that nomination 
unanimous, and to assure this Convention and the people 
of this country that Pennsylvania is heartily in accord with 
this nomination; that she gives her full concurrence to it, 
and that this country may expect from her the best major- 
ity that has been 2:1 ven for a Presidential candidate in 
many years. 

MR. HALE, OF MAINE. 

Mr. President: In returning heartfelt thanks to the 
men in this convention wIkj have aided us in the fight that 
we have made for the Senator Ironi Maine, and speaking, 
as I know that I do, for them here, I say this most heartily: 



100 STORIES AND SKETCJIES OF GARFIELD. 

We liave not gotten the man that we came to nominate, 
l)nt we liave o-ot a man in whom we have the greatest and 
most perfect confidence. [Cheers.] The nominee of this 
convention is no new or mitried man, and in that respect 
no dark horse. When he came here representing his State 
in the front of that delegation, and was seen here, every 
man knew him before that, and because of our faith in 
him, and because we Avere in that emergency glad to help 
make him the candidate of the Republicans for President 
of the United States, because of these things I stand here 
to pledge the Blaine forces of this convention to earnest 
effort from now until the ides of November, that shall 
make Jas. A. Garfield the next President of the United 
States. 

ME. W. H. PLEASANTS, OF VIRGINIA. 

Mij. Chaikman: As New York, Illinois, and Maine, 
along with Pennsylvania, have spoken, I stand here 
probably occupying a peculiar (but most rightly so) posi- 
tion to that of the majority of the people of this conven- 
tion. I came here, sir, from Virginia, instructed by the 
State Convention to vote for that peculiar and most dis- 
tinguished man, the most renowned in the world, Ulysses 
S. Grant, and I have proved it sincere here; I have been 
standing upon this floor, and upon all occasions casting 
my vote to the last for that man. But, sir, as the con- 
vention has thought best to nominate James A. Garfield, 
of Ohio, for President of the Unithd States, it may not be 
that we can promise you Virginia, but we can promise you 
this, as humble men, and as men who have on all occasions 
shoAvn their devotion to the Republican principles of the 
country; men who, as Virginia Republicans, on one 
occasion, gave the electoral vote of Virginia to Ulysses S. 
Grant; and while a division exists in the Republican party 
of that State, we hope in November next to return your 



THE NOMINATION. 101 

Tiorainee. Although it was said that we had all to receive 
and nothing to give, we now receive James A. Garlield, 
and will endeavor to give him Virginia. I, for one — and 
I speak for this delegation, and for every Republican in 
the State — second the nomination of James A. Garfield, 
and the motion to make the vote unanimous. 

BEN nARRISON, OF INDIANA. 

I am not in very good voice to address the convention. 
Indiana has been a little noisy v^'itliin the last hour, and, 
though the Chairman of this delegation, I forgot myself 
so much as to abuse my voice, I should not have detained 
the convention to add any word to what has been said in a 
spirit of such commendalJe harmony over this nomination, 
if it had not been for the over partiality of my friends 
from Kentucky, with whom we have had a good deal of 
pleasant intercourse. They insist, sirs, as I am the only 
defeated candidate for the Presidency on the floor of this 
convention, having received one vote from some misguided 
friend from Penns>-lvania, who, unfortunately for me, 
didn't have staying qualities, and dropi)ed out on the next 
ballot. I want to say to the Ohio delegation that they 
may carry to their distinguished citizen who has received 
the nomination at the hands of this convention my 
encouraging support. I bear him no malice at all. But, 
Mr. Chairman, I will defer my speeches until the cam- 
paign is hot, and then, on every stump in Indiana, and 
wherever else my voice can help on this great Republican 
cause to victory I hojie to be found. 




102 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

Gen. Garfield En Route for Home After His Nomination for Presiaent— 
From Illinois to Ohio— Incidents and Welcomes by the Way. 

The first emotions of surprise beiii*^ past, General Gar- 
field bore the fresh penalties of greatness with equanimity 
and apparently with some sense of enjoyment. From the 
moment his nomination became assured, he was made the 
recipient of such exuberant and spontaneous honors as loyal 
crowds in this republic delight to bestow upon their favor- 
ites. The music of brass bands announced his first appear- 
ance in the office of the hotel in Chicago, as he came from 
his room, clad for his journey to his Ohio home. A band 
and hundreds of people accomanied him to the depot, where 
a great crowd had gathered to wish him God-speed to his 
home, and hence through the campaign to the White 
House. "When he arrived at the depot, there was great 
cheering and waving of hats. 

General Garfield came to Cleveland in a special car, ac- 
companied by a number of intimate personal friends, 
among whom were Gov. Charles Foster, of Ohio; S. T, 
Everett, President of the Second National Bank of Cleve- 
land; Gen. Joseph Barrett, an old military friend of Gen. 
Garfield, he having been Chief of Artillery in the armies of 
Rosecrans and Thomas; Col. D. G, Swain, Judge Advocate 
of the United States Army, formerly Adjutant of the 42d 
Ohio Volunteers (Garfield's regiment); Lieutenant-Colonel 
L. A. Sheldon, Mayor W. H. AVilliams, and Capt. Charles 
T. Henry, all of whom were also ofiicers of Garfield's regi- 
ment; I. F. Mack, of the Ohio Register., Sandusky; W. B. 
Sherman, J. "W. Tyler, and Major Eggleston, of Cleveland, 
were also with Gen. Garfield. 

Once out of the din of Chicago, Gen. Garfield and his 
friends lighted their cigars and passed the hour.-^ in conning 
over the stirring events of the past weelc reading congratu- 
latory dispatches, and in a casual way discussing the politi- 



THE irmilNATION. 103 



cal outlook. Gen. Garfield gave brief expression to liis 
i^ratitication at the touching incidents of the last twenty- 
four hours which had brought out so many evidences of the 
universal appreciation in which his public services are held, 
and mentioned feelingly the handsome compliment paid 
him by the House of Representatives in Washington. 
Gov. Foster alluded jokingly to the popular impression 
that he may be Gen. Garfield's successor in Senatorial hon- 
ors, saying that he was already filling Garfield's shoes, hav- 
ing had his own stolen at the hotel in Chicago, and been 
compelled to accept the loan of a pair of these needful arti- 
cles from the General. 

At Laporte, Ind., the first stopping place of any conse- 
quence, many hundreds of people, with a brass band, had 
collected to salute Gen. Garfield as he passed. Gov. Foster 
made a brief speech introducing Gen. Garfield, when there 
were deafening cheers from the multitude. Gen. Sheldon 
followed, briefly telling the story of Chicago. At South 
Bend the scene was repeated, but with a larger crowd, and 
of course louder cheering. All along the route, at the 
hamlets through which the train passed without stopping, 
and even at farm houses, people gathered and gazed and 
cheered in one continued outburst. 

Indiana's welcome. 
At Elkhart, Ind., where the train made a stop for din- 
ner, a brass band led the way along the railroad platform 
to the dining room, and after dinner it headed the column 
on its return to the cars. At Goshen hundreds ot people 
were waiting with a gun mounted on a log, the first dis- 
charge from which dismounted the piece; but the crowd 
made up in enthusiasm for this mishap. 

At Ligonier the ceremonial ol introduction w-as some- 
what varied. Gen. Garfield getting ahead and introducing 
Gov. Charlie Foster to the crowd of an uunaii>ed water sta- 



104 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFB. 

tion, where a dozen men and boys — apparently the whole 
male population — had gathered. Several of the latter 
climbed aboard the car, inquiring for the coming man. 
Gen. Garfield was pointed out, and bowed. 

" Hallo! " shouted the delighted spokesman of tlie assem- 
blage, as the train moved away, "We'll support you." 

At Kendallville the ladies of the village were largely rep- 
resented in the greeting crowd, several of them bearing- 
bouquets for presentation to the num they had assembled 
to honor. At Waterloo and Butler, the last two stopping 
places in Indiana, the scenes enacted at the stations previ- 
ously passed were repeated. All along the lines crowds had 
been growing larger proportionately to the size of the 
towns, and the salutations were enthusiastic. 

IN onio. 

Crossing the line into Ohio, at Edgerton the greetings, 
of course, sufiered no diminution in point of numbers or 
enthusiasm, but fewer opportunities were offered for giving 
expression to the j^ublic feeling than in Indiana. Every- 
where 'the people, it was reported, were wild with enthusi- 
asm. 

At Bryan an aflecting incident occurred. Mr. AVilliam 
Letcher, an old gentleman, a cousin of Gen. Garfield, ])e- 
tween whom and himself exist ties of tender friendship, 
came on the car, prepared with a brief little speech of con- 
gratulation. He was so overcome with emotion, however, 
that he could only ejaculate, " Cousin James," and burst 
into tears. A friend recalled the fact that Mr. 'Letcher had 
held Gen. Garfield when a baby in his arms at the funeral 
of his father. 

CONGRATULATIONS. 

The following are a few of the hundreds of cons-ratula- 
tory telegrams received by Gen. Garfield during the day: 
Prof Simom Newcombe, the astronomer at Washino-ton, 



THE NOMINATION. 105 

" Thousand congratulations on the success of the office in 
finding the man." 

J. B. Dinsmore, Captain of "The Garfield Guards, Sut- 
ton, i^ebraska: " " Gen. Garfield's Guards were organized 
to-night, with forty-eight members. Great enthusiasm; 
torchlight procession and ratification meeting." 

William E., Johnson and 600 others, Ann Arbor, Mich.: 
" The students of the University of Michigan send con<>rat- 
ulations." 

A. S. Stratton, Mayor of Madison, Lake county (Gen. 
Garfield's own county), Ohio: "Madison sends greetings; 
immense enthusiasm; cannon, bonfires, speeches, and 
cheers." 

Frederick "W. Pitkin, Chairman, and K. G. Cooper, Sec- 
retary, Denver, Col.: "At an enthusiastic ratification meet- 
ing of the Republicans of Denver, held this evening, the 
following resolution was unanimously adopted: 

" Resolved^ By the Republicans of Denver in mass meet- 
ing assembled, that we heartily endorse the nomination of 
James A, Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, and we pledge 
the State ot Colorado for the Chicago nominations with 
5,000 majority." 

Thomas H. Wilson, member of the General Assembly, 
Younffstown, Ohio: "Youno:stown ablaze. Your friends 
have been hoping for just such a result, although appreci- 
ating the delicacy of your situation. The party has hon- 
ored and saved itself." 

Eli H. Murray, an old friend of Gen. Garfield's, now 
Governor of Utah: "Telegrams assure me that I was right 
in naming you President. God bless you." 



106 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

Garfield's Informal Acceptance of the Nomination— His Sense of the Re- 
sponsibility. 

ISI^ear midniglit, in Chicago, June 9th, 1880, the Com- 
mittee appointed by Senator Hoar to wait on Generals 
Garfield and Artlim' and notify them of their nomination, 
found them in the club room of the Grand Pacific Hotel, 
and Senator Hoar, as Chairman, made an apj)ropriate 
speech. 

Gen. Garfield replied : 

Me. Chairman and Gentlemen : 1 assure you that the 
information you have officially given to me brings the sense 
of very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of 
the fact that I was a member of your body, a feet that could 
not have existed with propriety had I had the slightest 
expectation that my name would be connected with the 
nomination for the office. I have felt with you great 
solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the 
struggle; but, believing that you are correct in assuring 
me that substantial unity has been reached in the con- 
clusion, it gives me a gratification far greater than any 
personal pleasure your announcement can bring. 

I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the 
work of our party, and as to the character of the campaign 
to be entered upon, I will take an early occasion to reply 
more fully than I can properly do to-night. 

I thank you for the assurances of confidence and esteem 
you have presented to me, and hope we shall see our future 
as promising as are indications to-night. 

Senator Hoar, in the same manner, presented the 
nomination to General Arthur, who accepted it in a brief 
and informal way. 



THE NOMINATION. 107 

How the News of Garfield's Nomination was Received at Hiram College 
-Kinging the Old Eell. 

When the ne^vs was received at Hiram College, where 
Garfield had been a school boy, Professor and President, 
the College bell, which Garfield used to ring for his tuition, 
was wildly rung, and the people came running from every 
part of the little town built around the College Square, to 
gather under the old bell to clasp hands and shout their joy. 

Everybody who went to school with Garfield: every 
pupil who remembers him as a rigid disciplinarian, but as 
the first and strongest on the ball ground, where he spent 
many hours with his scholars; every soldier who went to 
the war in the old Forty-Second, and all the people of this 
little town, who have lived here in the same houses thirty 
years, when as a youth he came among them, all and each 
loved Garfield; and as there were many representatives of 
each class, we can imagine the character of the occasion. 



First Vote for Garfield in the Chicago Convention— The Man Who Gave it 

Voted for Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln Under Like 

Circumstances. 

A prominent gentleman who, in speaking of the incidents 
of the Chicago Convention, which nominated Gen. Gar- 
field, said that the Pennsylvanian who cast the first and 
only vote which Gen. Garfield received for several ballots 
was Caleb N. Taylor, a delegate from the Bucks District. 

This gentleman says that while in Chicago he met Mr. 
Taylor, who was well known to him, he having been a Rep- 
resentative in Congress for several terms, and a person who, 
though a Quaker, always took a great interest in public 
aftairs, but was exceedingly deaf. 

Mr. Taylor accosted this gentleman in one of the corri- 



108 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

dors of the Falmer House and remarked that he expected 
to cast the first vote for the man who would be nominated, 
He declined to mention his name, but added that if he 
watched his vote he would discover who this gentleman 
was. 

Mr. Taylor then mentioned several instances in his ex- 
perience. He stated that, in 1848, his constituents sent 
liim to Harrisburg with instructions to vote as they had 
directed, but against this verdict he had cast his vote for 
Zachary Taylor, and for some time his was the only vote 
he received, and Taylor was subsequently nominated. In 
1860 he was again sent to the National Convention at 
Chicago, with instructions how he should vote. 

He again disregarded these instructions and cast his first 
vote for Abraham Lincoln, who was nominated. Mr. 
Taylor, in the late Chicago Convention, as already stated, 
cast his first vote for Garfield, who was also nominated. 



What Prominent Foreign-Born Citizens Say of the Convention— They Declare 
it Positively American. 

The folio wmg opinions of intelligent foreign -born 
citizens, respecting the Kepublican Convention at Cnicago, 
which nominated Gen. Garfield for President, are exceed- 
ingly interesting, and to the point: 

OPINION OF EX-LIEUT.-GOV. MITLLER. 

"Whoever has studied the history of the aiicients, and by 
its aid and lights has formed an idea of the imposing mag- 
nificence of the peoples' mass-meetings as they were held 
in the classic times of Greece and the Roman Empire for 
the purpose of listening to lectures, political and other 
matter-of-State discussions, witnessing public plays or 
gladiatorial contests, can find in the picture developed be- 



THE NO^IINATION. 109 

fore my eyes in this Republican National Convention an 
approaching connterpart. 

Ten thousand stalwart men filled the immense and 
splendidly-decorated hall; all seats, row upon rcw, and 
closely joined, were occupied, so that hardly a bullet could 
drop to the floor. All the different delegations irom the 
thirty eight States, the eight Territories, and the District 
of Columbia, had their space and seats allotted to them, 
and the galleries were filled with the most prominent and 
talented men of the country. 

The impression which this convention of sovereign 
citizens of a free land made upon the quiet observers was 
grand and imposing beyond all description. No showy 
and gold-embroidered uniforms, no diamond-stars and 
decorations of any order, or other such like tinsel, as are 
graciously bestowed by monarchs and princes upon their 
devoted subjects, attracted my attention, but civic and 
democratic simplicity in the outward appearance of all 
those present greeted my eyes! Eeserve, self-reliance, and 
intelligence were beaming on the faces of all who composed 
this vast assembly, and the thought that these men could 
ever give up all their country's traditions and its free in- 
stitutions as not worthy of preservation, disappeared at once 
from my mind. 

At all events, my observations during the session of this 
Convention so far have quieted all my apprehensions that 
among the people of this country sympathies for a so-called 
strong or monarchical government could ever take root. 

I am convinced now that everything which has mani- 
fested itself in this direction so far emanates only from 
those classes of our population commonly designated as 
" Shoddy ites," who are represented in real life by blase 
aristocratic swellheads. 



110 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

OPINION OF HERMAN RASTER. 

The conduct of the delegates and spectators in the Con- 
vention was, in one word, American; with that everything 
:'s said. IsTo personal altercations, no twitting, no insinua- 
tions; everywhere good cheer, pleasantness, and a disposi- 
tion to oblige predominated. But then came the outbursts 
of real or artificial enthusiasm, poured forth with such tre- 
mendous elementary strength, that would place the demo- 
niac yells of the Comanche Indians and the bowlings of the 
Zulu-Catfirs by far in the shade! Whoever did not witness 
the proceedings of the Convention on the fourth day of its 
session cannot even have an ap])roaching conception of the 
noise and wild enthusiasm which prevailed during that day 
from early morn until late at night. 

A stranger, unaware of the proceedings in the hall, 
might have been induced to believe that pandemonium had 
broken loose, or that all the lunatic asylums in the country 
had emptied their contents into the Exposition Building. 

Among the delegates, although determined in their oppo- 
sition and in the promotion of their choice's interests, 
nothing but pleasantness and affability was perceptible. 
During the whole time of the six days' proceedings not a 
word was uttered which could be tortured into a direct in- 
sult, and not a single serious dispute took place among 
them as well as among all this vast concourse of excited 
and enthusiastic men. In this respect the conduct of the 
Americans in their mass-meetings and gatherings cannot 
be enough praised and extolled, — more particularly so when 
we consider the behavior of the French, the Germans, 
Italians, and Poles on similar occasions. 

Any Convention of the importance and magnitude of 
that which has just adjourned in Chicago, held in France, 
would undoubtedly have caused hundreds of personal con- 
flicts and duels. Such a sudden readiness and submissive- 



THE NOMINATION. Ill 

ness to accept an unexpected result as a finality as is 
exhibited by Americans after their Conventions we look for 
in vain amono- ail other civilized nations. 



A Garfield Nomination Joke. 

An lionr or so after the latest and last from the Chicago 
nomination, a policeman on Randolph street halted at 
the door of a saloon and asked the proprietor how he liked 
the nomination. 

" I doan' care for bolitics any more," was the reply. 

" Wliy, what's the matter ? You were greatly excited 
yesterday." 

" If I vhas den I vhas a fool. Vhen dot first pallot vhas 
daken I set up der peer foi- de Grant crowd, for I likes to 
shtand vhell mit der poys." 

" Yes." 

" Den a pig crowdt rushes in here und yells out dot Jim 
Plaine vhas de coming man, und I hand out der cigars, for 
mein poy vhants a blace in der Gustom-house oof Jim 
Plaine vhas Bresident." 

" Yes, I see." 

" Vhell, pooty soon comes mein brudder in und says I 
vhas a fool, for dot feller Sherman w^ould git all der votes 
pooty queek. I tinks off Sherman gits it mein poy liaf a 
blace in der Post-office sure, und I calls in der poys und 
dells 'em to trink to my gandidate." 

" Just so." 

" I feels goot vhen I goes to bedt, but early in der morn- 
ings some Aldermans come roundt here und says: ' Shake, 
tont pe a fool. Edmunds ish der man wdio vhill knock 'em 
all to pieces,' und I dells efery ])ody I vhas an Edmundts, 
und I pet ten dollars he vhas voted in. Dis forenoon mein 



112 



STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 



poy vlias for Grant, mein briidder vlias for Sherman iind 
1 vluis for Blaine, und vhere pe dose live kegs of lager dot 
1 hadt dis morning? Ylien I goes home mein vhrow she 
saidt I vlias zwei fools, und I locks up der saloon und goes 
to bedt." 

" Well, have you heard who was nominated^" 

"^^ein." 

" It was Garfield." 

"■Garfeel? Pj Sheorge! I dreats avay seven kegs of 
lager und two poxes of cigars, und it vhas Garfeel! Wheel, 
dot ends me oop. If I efer haf some more to do mit boli- 
ticks, den 1 am as grazy as bedtbugs. Garfeel! Yhell — 
vhell. Vhat a fool I vhas dot I save not mein peer und 
make a zure blace for mein poy mit Garfeel!" 




MISCELLANEOUS. 



Who Is Geueral Garfield? 

The first and suj^erficial answer is, that he is the 
Republican leader in the popular branch of Congress, 
where he has served conspicuously for seventeen years, and 
that he is Senater elect from the State ot Ohio — two 
eminent stations, which, together with the Presidential 
nomination, distinguish him by an unexampled combination 
of civic honors. Reaching behind this Congressional 
experience, he was an enthusiastic volunteer in the Union 
Army. Before his military service he was for one brief 
term a member of the Senate of Ohio. This carries him 
back to the beginning of his public career, to a time when 
28 years of age he was a school-teacher in a little village 
on the Western reserve, in the neighborhood of the hamlet 
where he was born. 

lie came of a family of yeomen. When he was left an 
orphan in the cradle by his father's death his mother 
struggled with poverty to educate him for loftier pursuits 
than those of his ancestors, and the boy bravely seconded 
her efforts. The slow and scanty savings of labor as a 
canal boatman and a carpenter provided him means for a 
liberal ed ication, and at the mature age of 25 he was 
graduated fruni a jV[ew England college in 1856, the same 

113 8 



114 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

year in which tlie Republican party set its first Presidential 
ticket in the field. 

This is an honorable record — as characteristic as 
Abraham Lincoln's of the aspirations and op])ortunities of 
life in our republic; but its recital does not touch the core 
of our question. The mere outline of a man's experience 
is not a satisfactory reply to an inquiry what manner of 
man that experience has left liim. Answering the question 
in this deeper sense, Gen. Garfield is a typical repre- 
sentative of the civilization of New England removed into 
the West, where it has grown greater and ranker than 
it flourishes at home, as a New England wild flower might 
if trans])lanted from its rocky pasture into the rich soil of 
the prairie. 

When Sir Charles Dilke wrote a book upon America 
a few years ago he styled it the " Greater Britain." In the 
same spirit that broad reach of the Northwestern territory, 
which begins at the Valley of the Gennesee, and, after 
crossing the Western Reserve, spreads out into an area 
encompassing the great lakes, might well be styled the 
"Greater New England." The leaven of its first settlers 
pervades it, tempered, but not dissipated, by space and 
time, and from these settlers Gen. Garfield descended, 
bearing among his own names a Biblical patronymic, 
which, like Lincoln's, betokens his Puritan descent from 
a New England ancestry. 

Applying this key to his public career, the American 
people can fairly interpret its past, and conjecture its 
future. It explains the alliance of his fortunes with the 
Republican party; the ardor with which he has assisted in 
the abolition of slavery, and in the distinctive political 
measures which resulted from that event; the courage with 
which lie always has antagonized the "Ohio idea" of 
financial legislation; the hesitation with which he has 



MISCELLANEOUS. 115 

opposed his own liljeral convictions concerning economic 
questions to the predominant opinions of his political associ- 
ates; and the scholai'ly tastes which have impelled him to 
serve upon Congressional committees on education and the 
census, and as a regent of the Smithsonian Institute with 
no less zeal than he lias applied himself to the business of 
the committees on Military Affairs, Banking, and the Cur- 
rency and Appropriations, of all of which he has been 
successively Chairman. It defines also the respectable 
simplicity of his private life. 



Dying Words of Gen. Garfield's Father -He Leaves His Four Children in Care 

of His Wife. 

(tcu. Garfield's mother, a woman of wonderful intelH- 
o-ence and highly endowed by nature, was wedded to a man 
of the most generous impulses and largeness of soul, and 
together they sought their fortunes in the woods of Orange, 
Cuyahoga County, (). 

To this couple were born four children, James Abram 
beiu"- the last. When the youngest son was only two 
years old, his father, over-W(jrked and weary from the labor 
of saving his wheat crop from a tire which threatened its 
destruction, sat in a draft of wind, and contracted a violent 
sore throat. A quack doctor of the time applied a blister, 
which caused him to choke to death. Yigorous and hearty 
in all his frame, in his dying moments he said to his 
beloved wife : 

"I have planted four saplings in these wood?-. I must 
now leave them to your care." 

Then, taking a last look out upon his farm, and calling 
his oxen by name, he died. 



116 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

Garfield's Life in Hiram Sketched by^resident Hinsdale, of Hiram College 
—An Interesting History. 

" Garfield's life in Hiram," says President Hinsdale, 
"may be divided into fonr parts: First, student period; 
second, stndent and teacher; third, teacher, and, fourth, 
citizen pei'iod. I was not in Hiram when Garfield came 
here, but he came in 1851. His name first appears in the 
catalogue of that year, 'James A. Garfield, Cuyahoga 
county.' It appears the same w^ay next year, but never ap- 
pears again as tlie name of a student. In the catalogue of 
1853 it appears in the list of instructors as ' Teacher in the 
English Department and Ancient Languages.' He began 
to teach when he had been here about a year, and continued 
to teach at the same time carried on his owm studies, until 
he went to Williams College in 1854. Previous to going 
to Williams his name appears only once as instructor. 

The student period, then, may be said to have lasted one 
year, and student and teacher period two years. He en- 
tered the junior class at Williams College in 1854, and 
graduated in 1856, dividing the highest honors with one of 
his classmates. He returned to Hiram in the fall of 1856, 
where he had just been elected a teacher of ancient lang- 
uages and literature. He occupied this position one year, 
until, on retirement of Mr. A. L. Hayden, he became the 
head of the institution. The school was then called the 
Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, and did not become 
Hiram Colleo-e until 1865, so that Garfield was never Pres- 
ident of Hiram College, as has been stated, but was princi- 
pal of the institute, in active duty, from June, 1857, to Sep- 
tember, 1861. When he became the head of the institu- 
tution he was 26 years old. 

The teacher period of his life then covers four years. He 
entered the army in August, 1861, taking bodily his classes 
in history, Latin, etc., with him into the field. At this 



MISCELLANEOUS. 117 

time liis active connection with tlie institution ceased; but 
so reluctant was the Board of Trustees to part with his 
name that he continued nouiinally a principal until 1S64-. 
In the catalogiie of the two toUovring years liis name ap- 
jDears as 'Advising Principal,' and first as a member of the 
Board of Trustees in 1865. 

" In the fall of 1862, at 31 years of age, he was elected to 
Congress, but continued in the army until he took his seat 
in December of the year following. While in tiie army, 
he I)()iiglit this liouse, which I now own, which is the only 
piece of property Garfield ever owned in Iliram. His 
home continued to be here until he moved to Mentor in 
1876, so that the citizen period of his life may be said to 
reach from 1863 to 187-1 

"I came to Iliram at the opening of the winter term 
of 1853-1. I arri\('d in the evening, and saw nobody until 
next day. That day I went with father to Mr. JIayden, 
then Principal, and in the parlor of the house I first saw 
Garfield. 

"In stature he was what he is now, only not so well 
rounded up. His head was covered with an immense 
shock of tan-colored hair, which has since darkened. lie 
was but 22 years old, and had a decidedly veally appear- 
ance. George Pow, of Mahoning County came in, and the 
conversation turned ui)Ou a recent contest of Pow with B. 
S. Watkins on the rightfulness of Christians going to war. 
Pow had afiirmed this rightfulness under certain circum- 
stances, and, as I came in, young Garfield said: 'So, 
Brother Pow. you took the gun])0wder side, did you?' 
These are the fir^t words I remember to have e\er heard 
Garfiekl speak. 

"That winter I was a member of (Uie of Garfield's classes 
—a class in arithmetic of 105 members, which he handled 
with admirable power. The impression which he made 



118 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

upon me then is the same wliich lie made upon everybody 
then and after. I cannot describe liim better than to read 
a passao;e from my history of the Delphic Society. Gar- 
Held, I should say, was then a member of the Philomathious 
Society, and delivered before it that winter a course of 
lectures on history. But here is the passage : 

"'An old Harvard student, in a private letter, speaks of the 
Philomathians as 'wonderful men,' mentions those he thought 
'master spirits,' and adds: 'Then began to grow up in me an 
admiration and love for Garfield that has never abated, and the 
like of wliich I have never known. A bow of recognition or a 
single word from him was to me an inspiration. The exact 
parallel or my own experiences, Garfield, you have taught me more 
than any other man, living or dead ; and when I recall these early 
days, when I remember that James and I were not the last of the 
boys, proud as I am of your record as a soldier and a statesman, I 
can hardly forgive you for abandoning the academy for the field 
and the forum.' 

"When I read the above passage," continned Hinsdale, 
laying the book down, " before a brilliant audience in the 
chapel four years ago, the cheers with which it was received 
showed that it struck a chord in all hearts. 

•'My real acquaintance with Garlield did not begin until 
the fall of 1856, when he returned from Williams College. 
He then found me out, drew near to me, and entered into 
all my troubles and difficulties pertaining to questions of 
the future. In a greater or less degree this was true of his 
relations to his pupils generally. There are hundreds of 
these men and women scattered over the world to-day who 
cannot find language strong enough to express their feeling 
in contemplating Garfield as their old instructor, adviser 
and friend. Since 1856 my relations with him have been 
as close and confidential as they could be with any man, 
and much closer and more confidential than they have been 
with any other man. I do not say that it would be possible 
for me to know anybody better than I know him, and I 



MISCELLANEOUS. 119 



know that lie possesses all tlie great elements of character 
in an extraordinary degree. 

" His interest in humanity has always been as broad as 
humanity itself, while his lively interest in young men and 
women, especially if they were struggling in narrow cir- 
cumstances to obtain an education, is a characteristic 
known as widely over the world as the footsteps of Iliram 
boys and girls have wandered. 

"The help that he furnished hundreds in the way of 
suggestions, teaching, encouragement, inspiration, and 
stimulus, was most valuable. I have repeatedly said that, 
as regards myself, I am more indebted to him for all that I 
am and for what I have d(jne in the intellectual field than 
to any other man that eyer lived. 

" His power over students was not so much that of a 
drill-master or disciplinarian as that of one who was able 
to inspire and energize young people by his own intellectual 
and moral force." 



An Interesting Reminiscence of Garfield's Youth-A Letter He Wrote 23 
Years ago that Helped to Make a College President, and that 
President Now Reads it to His Students. 

President Hinsdale said, at the recent Commencement at 
Hiram College (June, 18^01, that in the fall of 1856 he left 
the Eclectic Institute, now Iliram College, in distress of 
mind growing out of his own life-cpiestions. He had 
passed his 19th birthday, and the question of the future 
weighed heavily upon his mind. That winter he taught 
district-school. He had already won a friend in Mr. Gar- 
field, then 25 years old, and just out of Williams College. 
Garfield was then teaching in Iliram as Professor of Ancient 
Languages. In his distress of mind Hinsdale wrote Gar- 
field a letter, in which he fully opened up his mind. In 



120 8T0RIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

reply lie received a letter, wliicli gave liim great help, that 
illustrated some of the points in the morning's lecture. 
This letter, which he had religiously preserved, might give 
help to some of the young men before him. Besides, there 
was peculiar propriety in his reading it, on account of what 
had taken place the day before in the City of Chicago. He 
then proceeded to read from the original — yellow with age, 
and worn with repeated foldings and unfoldings — the fol- 
lowing beautiful letter: 

"Hiram, Jan. 15, 1857. — My Dear Brother Burke: I 
was made glad a few days since by the receipt of your 
letter. It was a very acceptable New Year's j^resent, and I 
take great pleasure in responding. You have given a vivid 
picture of a community in which intelligence and morality 
have been neglected, and I am glad you are disseminating 
the light. Certainly men must have some knowledge in 
order to do right. God hrst said, 'Let there be light;' 
afterward he said, ' It is very good! ' 

" I am ghid to hear of your success in teaching, but I 
approach with much more interest the consideration ol the 
question you have projwsed. Brother mine, it is not a 
question to be discussed in the spirit of debate, but to be 
thought over and prayed over as a question ' out of which 
are the issues ot life.' You will agree with me that every 
one must decide and direct his own course in life, and the 
only service friends can afford is to give us the data from 
which we must draw our own conclusion and decide our 
course. Allow me, then, to sit beside you and look over 
the Held of lite and see -what are its aspects. 

" I am not one of those who advise everyone to under- 
take the work of a liberal education. Indeed, I believe 
that in two-thirds of the cases such advice would be unwise. 
The great body of the people will be, and ought to be 
(intelligent), farmers and mechanics; and in many respects 



MISCELLANEOUS. 121 

they pass the most independent and happy Vixe^. llut God 
has endowed some of His children with desires and capa- 
bilities for a more extended tield of hd^or and inihience, 
and so every life should be shajied uect-rding to 'what the 
man hatli.* !Now, in retereriee to yr nrselt, I know you have 
capabiL'ties for occupying; positions of higli and important 
trust in the scenes of active life, and I am sure you will not 
call it flattery in me nor egotism in yourself to say so. 
Teil me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirring witliin 
you that longs to know, to do, and to dare / to hold con- 
verse with the great woi'ld of thought, and hold l)efore you 
some high and noble object to which the vigor of your 
mind and the strength of your arm may be given? Do you 
not have longings like these, which you breathe to no one, 
and which you feel must be heeded, or y3u M'ill pass 
throuirh life unsatisfied and rem-etful? I am sure you have 
them, and they will forever cling round your heart till you 
obey their mandate. They are the voices of that nature, 
which God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will 
bless you and your fellow-men. 

" Now, all this might be true, and yet it might be your 
duty not to follow that course. If your duty to your father 
or yom- mother demands that you take another, I shall 
rejoice to see you take that other course. The path of duty 
is where we all ought to walk, be that where it may. But 
I sincerely hope that you will not, w^ithout an earnest 
struggle, give up a course of liberal study. Suppose you 
could not begin your study again till after your majority, — 
it will not be too late then, but you will gain in many 
respects. You will have more maturity of mind to appre- 
ciate w^hatever you nuxy study. You may say you will be 
too old to begin the cource. But how could you better 
spend the earlier days of lite? We should not measure life 
by the days and moments we pass on earth. 



122 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

" ' The life is measured by tlie soul's advance — 
The enlargement of its powers — the expanded field 
Where it ranges, till it burns and glows 
With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' 

" It need be no discouragement that you will be obliged 
to hew your own way and pay your own charges. You 
can go to school two terms of every year, and pay your own 
way. 

" I know this, for I did so when teachers' wages were 
much lower than they are now^ It is a great truth that 
' Where there is a will, there is a way.' It may be that by- 
and-by your father would assist you. It may be that even 
now he could let yon commence on your resources, so that 
you could begin immediately. Of this you know, and I 
do not. I need not tell you how glad I should be to assist 
you in your work; but, if you cannot come to Hiram while- 
I am here, I shall still hope to hear that you are deter- 
mined to go on as soon as the time will permit. Will you 
not write me your thoughts on this whole subject, and tell 
me your prospects? We are having a very good time in 
the school tliis winter. Give my love to liolden and 
Louisa, and believe me always your friend and brother, 

''J. A. Garfieli.. 

"P. S. — Miss Booth and Mr. Ehodes send their love to- 
you. Henry James was here and made me a good visit a 
few days ago. He and I have talked of going to see you 
this w^inter. I tear we cannot do it. How far is it from 
here? Burke, was it prophetic that my last word to you 
ended on the picture of the Capitol of Congress? 

''J. A. G." 

The letter was written on Congress note paper, and the 
sheet was entirely^filled, so that the last few words were 
written crosswise; and, as is said by the General, his last 
word came across the little picture at the upper left-hand 



MISCELLANEOUS. 123 

corner of tlie sheet. Whether the General means to ask in 
regard to the prophetic significance in liis own case, or that 
ot Hinsdale, is not known; but it certainly came true in 
liis own case. 



Gen. Garfield's Speech Before the Hiram College Reunion Association— Thj 
Commencement Day of 1880 Long to be Remembered. 

On this happy occasion, President Hinsdale introduced 
Gen. Garfield as follows: It is with a good deal of satisfac- 
tion and pride that I now introduce to jou one into whose 
face most all of you have looked hundreds of times, a fellow 
student with some of you, and a co-worker in the institu- 
tion with others, a teacher of a larger number, a man who 
for years has been near and dear to ns, and whose presence 
here to-day has lifted what otherwise would have been a 
comparatively humble though a very pleasant and enjoyable 
occasion to tlie rank and dignitj^ of ]N"ational matters — Gen. 
Garfield. 

Gen. Garfield arose and said : 

Ladies and Gejjtlemkn: I said that there were two 
chapters in the history of this Institute. You have heard 
the one relating to the founders. They were all pioneers 
of. this Western Reserve, or nearly all ; they were all men 
of knowledge and great force of character; nearly all not 
men of means, but they planted this little institution. In 
1850 it was a cornfield, with a solid, plain brick building in 
the centre of it, and that w^as all. Almost all the rest has 
been done by the institution itself. That is the second 
chapter. 

Without a dollar of endowment, without a powerful 
friend anywhere, but with a corps of teachers who were told 
to go on to the ground and see what they could make out 



124 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

ot it, to find their own paj out of tlie little tuition that 
they could receive. Thej invited students of their own 
spirit to come on the ground and see what they could make 
out of it, and the response has been that many have come, 
and the chief j^art of the respondents I see in the faces 
around and before me to-day. It was a simple question 
of sinking or swimming for themselves. And I know that 
we are all inclined to be a little clannish over our own. 
We have, perhaps, a right to be, but I do not know of any 
place, I do not know of any institution that has accom- 
plished more with so little means as has this school on 
Hiram Hill. 

I know of no place where the doctrine of self-help has a 
fuller development, by necessity as well as finally by 
choice, as here on this hill. The doctrine of self-help and 
of force has the chief place among these men and women 
around here. As I said a great many years ago alxnit that, 
the act of Hiram was to throw its young men and women 
overboard and let them try it for themselves, and all those 
men able to get ashore got ashore, and I think we have few 
cases of drowning anvwhere. 

Now, I look o\'er these faces and I mark the several 
geological changes remarked by Mr. At water so well in his 
address; but in the few cases of change of geological fact 
there is, I find, no fossils. Some are dead and gloi-ified in 
our memories, but those who are not are alive — I think all. 

The teachers and the studens of this school built it up in 
every sense. They made the cornfield into Hiram Campus. 
Those fine groves you see across the road they planted. I 
well remember the day when they turned out into the 
woods to find beautiful maples, and brought them in; 
when they raised a little purse to purchase evergreen; 
when each young man, for himself one. and perhaps a 
second for some young lady, if he was in love, planted two 



MISCELLANEOUS. 125 

trees on the campus and tlien named them after himself. 
There are several here to-day who remember Bolen. Bolen 
planted there a tree, and Bolen has planted a tree that has 
a Inbtre — Bolen was shot through the heart at Winchester. 

There are many here that can go and find the tree that 
you have named after yourself. They are great, strong 
trees to-day, and your names, like your trees, are, I hope, 
growing still. 

I believe outside of or beyond the physical features 
of the place, that there was a stronger pressure ot work to 
the square inch in the boilers that run this establishment 
than any other that I know of, and, as has been so well 
said, tliat has told all the while with these young men and 
women. The struggle, wherever the uncouth and un- 
tutored farmer boys — a farmer, of course — that came here 
to try themselves and find what kind of people they were. 
They came here to go on a voyage of discovery. Your 
discovery was yourselves, in many cases. I hope the 
discovery was a tortnne, and the friendships then formed 
out of that have bound this group of people longer and 
farther than most any other I have known in life. They 
are scattered all over the United States, in every field 
of activity, and if I had time tt) name them, the sun would 
iro down before I had finished. 

I believe the rules of this institution limits us to time — 
I think it is said five minutes. I may have overgone it 
already. We have so many already that we want to hear 
from, we will all volunteer. We expect now to wrestle 
awhile with the work before us. Some of these boys 
remember the time when I had an exercise that I remem- 
ber with pleasure. I called a young lad out in a class and 
said, in two minutes you are to speak to the best ot your 
ability on the following subject (naming it), and give the 
subject and let him wrestle with it. I was trying a 



126 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFD. 

theory, and I believe tliat wi-estling was a good thing. I 
will not vary the performance save in this. I will call you 
and restrict you to five minutes, and let you select your 
theme about the old days of Hiram. 

JSTow, we have a grave judge in this audience, who 
wandered away from Hiram into the Forty-Second Regi- 
ment into the South, and, after the victory, stayed there. I 
will call now, not as a volunteer man, but as a drafted man 
— Judge Clark of Mississippi. 



Garfield's First Ride on the Cars— First Visit to Columbus— First School, 
Etc.— Interesting Reminiscences. 

It was the good fortune of the writer of this to spend the 
first two weeks of the notable campaign of 1877 with Gen. 
Garfield. It was almost evident to the best-informed poli- 
tical calculator that the Republicans must be defeated that 
year. Fate Avas against them, and whatever herculean 
efibrts might be made could only be in vain. The excuse 
was this and that, but the fact was a conglomeration of ad- 
verse circumstances which no one could successfully con- 
tend against. 

The campaign was opened on a bright day in early 
autunm, under the beautiful elms and maples of that de- 
lightful old university town of Athens. Hon. Stanley 
Matthews, recently elected United States Senator, Judge 
West, candidate for Governor, and Gen. Garfield, together 
with several lesser lights in the party, were present and 
made speeches. It was an occasion full of importance, and 
was carefully reported in the daily press of the entire 
country. 

The meeting was held on Saturday afternoon, and the 
General found it necessary to remain in the town over Sun- 
day. After taking a stroll about the town during the fore- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 127 

noon, and reading liis usual amount from some popular 
volume, the General, later in tlie daj, in the presence of 
Cajit. C. E. Ilenrv and myself, the General said: 

'•Many interesting reminiscences which it is very diffi- 
cult for me to express have run through my mind during 
the past twenty-four hours. While speaking trom the 
stand in the college campus, yesterday, I could not refrain 
from casting my eyes up to a certain window in the main 
building which opens into a room where I spent a night, 
some twenty-five years ago, in the company of my cousin 
Ella Ballon, wlio was a student here. 

'' I had come all the way from our home in Cuyahoga 
county with my mother. It had been an eventful journey 
to me. 

"I had rode for the first time on the cars." 

" I had l)een for the first time to the capital, and been 
shown with my mother through the halls of the State 
House. 

" Hon. Gamaliel Kent was the Representative from 
Geauga county, and he showed us about. From there we 
come on to Athens, in the immediate vicinity of which 
town resided my mother's relatives. 

"That winter I taught my fii'st school in a log house in 
this vicinity. 

" I due: the coal which was burned during the winter 
from the bank in the i-ear of the house, and worked for, I 
thiidv, $10 per month. It was an eventful winter for me. 
I had some scholars who had been reported as somewhat 
hard, but I think that I succeeded reasonably well in keep- 
ing order." 

" Was this before or after your canal experience?" 

"It was after that, some time. I had given up all idea 
of a life on the canal at that time, but I did expect to go 
on the sea even then." 



128 ."iTORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

At this early period the books ^rhich the young General 
mostly read were tales of the sea. These were the only 
stories that could he easily obtained. 

The General says that he most vivddly remembers the 
"Pirate's Own Book," and the impression which it made 
lived with him for years. He dreamed of an impossible 
career on the ocean. 

The great statesman v/as a good reader at 3 years old, and 
was remarkable for the faculty which he exhibited for re- 
taining almost verbatim the contents of the volumes which 
he perused. It is reported by the good people of the vicin- 
ity, who were boys with the General, that he often annoyed 
teachers of somewhat limited education by the numberless 
questions which he asked them. 



Garfield's Extra Session Speech— Turning on the Light. 

General Garheld, at the extra session of Congress in 
1879, turned a flood of the fierce light of history upon the 
disgraceful record of the Democratic party, and then made 
clear that their attitude at that time in threatening to stop 
the supplies of the Government unless their schemes look- 
ing to the removal of the safeguards that surround the 
ballot-box were permitted was as unpatriotic and pestiferous 
as their attitude during the war. It was in the course of 
this great effort that he spoke the following words, which 
indicate the intense patriotic earnestness and the frank fear- 
lessness of the man: 

I desire to ask the forbearance of the gentlemen on the 
other side for remarks I dislike to make, for they will bear 
witness that I have in many ways shown my desire that the 
wounds of the war should be healed, and that the grass 
that God plants over the graves of our dead may signalize 



MISCELLANEOUS. 129 

the return of tlie Spring of friendship and peace T)etween 
all parts of the country. But I am compelled hj the 
necessity of the situation to refer for a moment to a chapter 
of history. 

The last act of the Democratic domination in this house, 
eighteen years ago, was stirring and dramatic, but it was 
heroic and whole-souled. Then the Democratic party said: 
" If you elect your man as President of the United States 
we will shoot your Union to death." 

And the people of this country, not willing to be 
coerced, but l)elieving they had a right to vote for Abraham 
Lincoln if they chose, did elect him lawfully as President, 
and then your leaders, in control of the majority of the 
other wing of this Capitol, did the heroic thing ot with- 
drawing from their seats, and your Representatives with- 
drew from their seats and flung down to us the gage of 
mortal battle, We. called it rebellion, but we admitted 
that it was honoi'able, that it was courageous, and that it 
was noble to give us the fell gage of battle, and fight it out 
in the open field. 

That confiict, and what followed, we all know too well; 
and to-day, after eighteen years, thp book of your domina- 
tion is opened where you turned down your leaves in 1S60, 
and you are signalizing your return to power by reading 
the second chapter (not this time an heroic one) that de- 
clares that if we do not let you dash a statute out of the 
book you will not shoot the Union to death as in the first 
chapter — but starve it to death by refusing the necessary 
appropriations. 

You, gentlemen, have it in your power to kill it b}^ this 
movement. You have it in your power, by withholding 
these two bills, to smite the nerve centers of our Constitu- 
tion to the stillness of death ; and you have declared your 
purpose to do it if you cannot break down the elements 

9 



130 STORIES AND SKEICHES OF GARFIELD. 

oi free consent that, np to this time, have always ruled in 
the Government. 

It is unnecessary to say that the sentences quoted were 
burned into the memories of the Democracy. In the light 
of Garfield's unsparing but candid arraignment they were 
forced to see along with the rest of the people that their 
party, according to the measure of its opportunity, was as 
much a foe to the safety and prosperity of the American 
Union as the Democracv of the war. 



Anecdote of Gen. Garfield at Murfreesboro, Illustrating a Noble Trait of His 

Character. 

The following reminiscence throws additional light on 
noble character of Garfield : 

Garashee, Rosecrans's Chief of Staff", was killed the first 
day of the fight at Murfreesboro. A solid shot left his 
body headless. Old Rosey, as he was familiarly and affec- 
tionately called by the boys, who was at Garashee's side 
when the fatal shot took eff'ect, glanced at the faithful 
officer's corpse, and exclaiming " poor fellow," called out : 
" Scatter, gentlemen, scatter." 

The order was obeyed by staff" and orderlies with more 
than alacrity, as the enemy had us in blank range of a well- 
manned battery, the shot flying thick and fast, without any 
apparent respect of persons. A few days after, says 
Thomas Daughberty, w^ho tells this story, I do not remem- 
ber how many, but it was after we had got into quarters in 
the to^\^l of Murfreesboro, Garfield joined us, to take the 
dead man, Garashee's, place as Chief of Staff'. 

We boys thought he was a perfect success, and as an 
illustration of his kindness of heart, a virtue not often 
practiced by army officers in the field, toward subordinates 
at least, I 2:ive vou this little storv : 



MISCELLANEOUS, 131 

One niglit, very late, tne Doys Deing rolled in their 
blankets on the hall floor asleep, and I at my post, sitting- 
in a chair at the Commanding General's door, awaiting 
orders to be taken to their destination by my then sleeping 
comrades ; the light but a tallow candle stuck in a sardine 
box; I, with chair til^d against the wall, had fallen asleep 
too, when Gen. Garfield, the new Chief of Staff, emerged 
from the headquarter-room quickly. Not noticing my 
extended limbs, he tripped over them and dropped to hands 
and knees on the floor. As he was no light weight, even 
then the fall was not easy. 

Affrighted, I jumped to my feet, stood at attention, and, 
as the General arose, saluted, expecting nothing else tlian 
to be cuffed, and probably kicked, too, from one end of the 
hall to the other. But, to my astonishment, he kindly and 
quietly said: " Excuse me. Sergeant." I not only excused 
him, but, with all our little command, to whom the inci 
dent was told, revered him. 



The First Garfield Club— Organized by the Students at Williamstown, Mass 
Every ballot at tlie Chicago Convention was announced 
immediately to a large and expectant crowd at Williams 
College (Gen. Garfield is a graduate of Williams College) 
as fast as received. Wlien the news came that a son 
of Williams College was nominated, the crowd went wild. 
Tlie students, headed by a man carrying the American 
flag, marched to the President's house, where Dr. Chad- 
bourn made a speech. A mass meeting was then held by 
the students in Alumni Hall, and a grand ratification 
meeting was appointed. A brass band was engaged, 
together with prominent speakers of Berkshire County. A 
Garfield Club was organized also, and a grand procession 
planned, all before 2 : 30 p. m. Tlie College took a holiday 
in honor of the nomination, and has the honor of organizing 
the first Garfield Club in the country. 



J 32 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

Dignity of American Citizenship— Garfield's Eloquent Speech in Washington 
After His Nomination, Delivered June 16th, 1880. 

Fellow-Citizens: "While I have looked upon this great 
array, I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty 
of the American people. 

Wlien I reflect that wherever von find the sovereie-n 
power, every reverent heart on earth bows before it, and 
when I remember that here, for a hundred years, we have 
denied the sovereignty of any man, and in place of it we 
have asserted the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see 
before so vast a concourse that it is easy for me to imagine 
that the rest of the American people are gathered here 
to-night; and, if they were all here, every man would stand 
uncovered and in unsandaled feet in the presence of the 
majesty of the only sovereign power in this Government 
under Almighty God ; and, therefore, to this great 
audience I pay the respectful homage that in part belongs 
to the sovereignty of the people. 

I thank you for this great and glorious demonstration. I 
am not for one moment misled into believing that it refers 
to so poor a thing as any one of our number. I know it 
means your reverence to your Government, your reverence 
for its laws, your reverence for its institutions, and your 
compliment to one wlio is placed for a moment in relations 
to you of jDeculiar importance. For all these reasons I 
thank you. 

I cannot at this time utter a word on the subject of 
general politics. I would not mar the cordiality of this 
welcome, to which to some extent all are gathered, by any 
reference except to the jDresent moment and its significance. 

But I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage 
to-night are my comrades in the late war for the Union. 
For them I can speak with entire propriety, and can say 
that these very streets heard the measured tread of your 



MISCELLANEOUS. 133 

disciplined feet years ago, when tlie imperiled Tlepnblic 
needed your hands and your hearts to sa\'e it, and you came 
back with your numbers decimated, but those you left 
behind were immortal and glorified heroes forever, and 
those yon brought back came carrying under tattered ban- 
ners and in bronzed hands the ark of the covenant of youi 
Eepublic in safety out of the bloody baptism of the war, 
and you brought it in safety to be saved forever by your 
valor and the wisdom of your brethren who were at home, 
and by this you were again added to the civil army of the 
Republic. 

I greet you, comrades and fellow-soldiers, and the great 
body of distinguished citizens who are gathered here 
to-night, who are the strong stay and support of business, 
ot prosperity, of peace, of civic order, and the glory of the 
Republic, and I thank you for your welcome to-night. It 
was said in a welcome to one who came to England to be a 
part of her glory, and all the nation spoke when it said: 
Xormans, and Saxons, and Danes are we, 
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee. 
And we say to-night of all the nations, of all the people, 
soldiers arud civilians, there is one name that welds us all 
into one. It is the name of an American under the Union 
and under the glory of the flag that leads us to victory and 
to peace. 



" The Member from New York.' 



Gen. Garfield in his school days used to take the part of 
"the member from Kew York" in the miniature House of 
Congress which his elocution class had formed itself into. 
He Ts said to have enjoyed this exceedingly, and his oratory 
excelled that of all the others. 



134 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF QARFIEFD. 

The Canal Story as Told by the Man Who Employed Young Garfield to Drive 
on the Tow Path. 

The gentleman who employed young Garlield to drive on 
the " Tow path " is still living, and resides in Jersey City. 
His name is Jonathan Myers. He gives the following full 
account of " Jim Garfield's " canal labors: 

" He was a driver for me on the Ohio Canal. I have 
watched his career ever since he left me, and have felt very 
much interested in him, and gratified to see what he has 
achieved. 

The first time he ran for the Legislature of Ohio he was 
in my district, and I voted for him. After that I moved 
East, and that is the only time I ever voted for him. When 
he left me he did not 'boat ' any more. 

It is a mistake about his ever having been a steersman. 
He was not large enough for a steersman. "When he was 
in my employ he was not more than 13 years of age. 

I remember when he applied to me for a job on my 
boat. He was a stout, healthy boy, and his frank, open 
countenance impressed me so much that I at once employed 
him. He was always full of fun, and exceedingly good 
natured. I never saw him mad. He was with me about 
three months. 

He was always very attentive to his business. He was 
also a great boy to read. If he was not busy he was always 
reading. I scarcely ever saw him idle. One day, as we 
were going up the canal, he came to me and said he would 
like to get a place where he could work and attend school. 

I laiew of a doctor by the name of Robinson who lived 
near me, who was in need of a boy to attend his horse and 
do chores about his place. I told " Jim " he had better go 
up and see the Doctor, and if he had not got a boy he had 
better get the place. I disliked to part with him, but 
I saw he was too intelligent a lad to be driving a canal-boat. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 135 

He went up, and the Doctor ' froze ' to him at once. The 
Doctor was what you might call a minister. He was a 
Campbellite, and a very good man indeed. 

During the first winter "Jim" was with the Doctor he 
got converted, and after he got converted they " froze " to 
him tighter than ever. "When spring came, " Jim " wanted 
to get some work to enable him to buy some clothes, and 
he spoke to the Doctor about it. The Doctor told him he 
must not leave school — that he must go through now. 
"Jim" said: 

" Doctor, but I haven't got any money." The Doctor 
told hi in that was all right— that he would stand behind 
him. 

I remember that he ^^'as a very poor boy, and 
that 1 was very favorably impressed with him. These 
canal boys were generally a shiftless lot of fellows, and it 
was hard work to get a good boy. Our boats were different 
then from what they are now. We used to have them 
fitted up nicely to carry passengers as well as freight. My 
wife used to be on the boat with me, and she thought a 
good deal of " Jim." 

The great difficulty we had with the drivers on our boats 
was that they would lie, but if you got anything from 
" Jim " you could always rely on it. I never caught him 
in a lie "^ while he was with me. He was getting $10 a 
month and his board, and that was considered very big 
wages. He was born in Orange, Cuyahoga County, O. He 
came to me as any other boy to hire out. 



The Turning Point in Garfield's Life, and How It Happened. 

The following anecdote concerning Garfield's early life 
shows a critical period of the boy's experience: 

Garfield was then a queer, awkward boy of IG, and was 



136 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

revolving in liis mind tlie feasibility of taking a course of 
liberal study. He knew that Dr. Eobinson was in town, 
and bad seen liim at his mother's house, and had confidence 
in his judgment. He called around, therefore, at the 
President's house, and asked for Dr. Eobinson. The Doctor 
was at his dinner, but soon finished, and came out to see 
what his young friend wanted. 

" I want to see you alone," said Garfield. 

"Who are you?" asked the grufi" but kind-hearted 
Doctor. 

" My name is James Garfield, from Solon," replied the 
latter. 

" Oh ! I know your mother, and knew you when you 
were a babe in arms; but you had outgi-own my knowledge. 
I am glad to see you." 

The young man led the way toward a secluded spot on. 
the south side of Hiram Hill; and, as they proceeded, the 
Doctor took a good look at his companion. He was a 
young man quite shabbily dressed, with coarse satinet 
pantaloons, which were far outgrown, and did not reach 
more than half-way down his cowhide boot-tops. His vest 
did not meet the waistband of his pants, and his arms 
reached far out through the sleeves of his coat. His head 
was clothed with a coarse wool hat, which had also seen 
much wear, and slouched upon his head. 

" He was wonderfully awkward," said the good Doctor 
(who tells this story), " and had a sort of independent, go-as- 
you-please gait. At length we reached a spot that was 
covered with papaw bushes, and we took a seat on a log. 
After a little hesitation the young man said: 

" You are a physician, and know the fibre that is in men. 
Examine me and tell me with the utmost frankness whether 
I had better take a course of liberal study. I am con- 
templating doing so. My desire is in that direction. But, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 137 

if I am to make a failure ofl#, or practically so, I do not 
desire to begin. If you advise me not to do so, I shall feel 
content." 

" I felt tliat I was on my sacred honor, and the young 
man looked as tliougli lie felt himself on trial. I had had 
considerable experience as a physician, but here was a case 
much different from any other I had ever had. I felt it 
must be handled with great cai-e. 

I examined his head, and saw that there was a mag- 
nificent brain there. I sounded his lungs, and found that 
they were strong and capable of making good blood. I 
felt his pulse, and saw that there was an engine capable of 
sending the blood up to the head to feed the brain. I had 
seen many strong physical systems, with warm feet, but 
cold, sluggish brain; and those who possessed such systems 
would simply sit around and doze. Therefore I was 
anxious to know about the kind of an engine to run that 
delicate machine, the brain. At the end of a fifteen- 
minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and I 
aids: 'Go on, follow the leadings of your ambition, and 
ever after I am your friend. You have the brain of a 
Webster, and you have the physical proportions that will 
back you in the most herculean eftbrts. All you need to 
do is to work. "Work hard — do not be afraid of over- 
working — and you will make your mark.'" 

The Doctor and the General visited the spot made thus 
sacred as the witness of the turning point in Garfield's 
life, on the day of the recent Hiram commencement. 

" I in^Tted the General to come to my house in Bedford, 
in order that I might talk the matter over more fully with 
him; and in a short time he did so. The General has often 
told me that the conversation gave him confidence in him- 
self, which he had never had before, and he went on with 
his course, and, as is already known, won for himself the 
highest honors of his class, and of the world at large. 



138 STOBIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

The Methods and Habits of Garfield While a Teacher—How He Played With 
the Boys, Shook Hands, Lectured, Etc, 

The Rev, J. L. Darsie, of Danbnry, Conn,, was one of 
Garfield's pupils in his school days. He thus describes the 
habits and methods of Professor Garfield: 

" I attended school at the Western Reserve Eclectic In- 
stitute when Garfield was Principal, and I recall vividlj^ 
Gen. Garfield's method of teaching. 

" He took very kindly to me, and assisted me in various 
ways, because I was poor and was janitor of the buildings, 
and swept them out in the morning and built the fires, as 
he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil at 
the same scliool. 

He was full of animal spirits, and he used to run out on 
the green almost every day and play cricket with us. He 
was a tall, strong man, but dreadfully awkward. Every 
now and then he would get a hit on the nose, and he muffed 
his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing. 

He was left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the 
clumsier. But he was most powerful and very quick, and 
it was easy for us to understand how it was that he had ac- 
quired the reputation of whipping all the other mule driv- 
ers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that 
thoroughlare when he followed its tow-path ten years 
earlier. 

'No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always 
called us by our first names, and kept himself on the most 
familiar terms with all. He pla^^ed with us freely, scuffled 
with us sometimes, walked with us in walking too and fro, 
and we treated him out of the class room jnst about as we 
did one another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, 
and enforced the rules like a martinet. 

He combined an affectionate and confiding manner with 
a respect for order in a most successful manner. If he 
wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approba- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 18» 

tion, lie would generally manage to get one arm around 
him and draw him up close to him. 

He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a 
twist to your arm and drawing you right up to him. This 
sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. 
When I was a janitor he used sometimes to stop me and 
ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising 
with me. I can see now that my opinion could not have 
been of any value, and that he probably asked me partly to 
increase my self-respect, and partly to show me that he felt 
an interest in me. I certainly was his friend all the firmer 
for it. 

I remember once asking him what was the best way to 
pursue a certain study, and he said: 

"Use several text-books. Get the views of different 
authors as you advance. In that way you can plow a 
broader furrow. I always study in that way." He tried 
hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He 
broke out one day with : 

" Henry, how many posts are there under the building 
downstairs?" Henry expressed his opinion, and the ques- 
tion went around the class, hardly one getting it right. 

He was the keenest observer I ever saw. I think he no- 
ticed and numbered every button on our coats. 

A friend of mine was walking with him through Cleve- 
land one day when Garfield stopped and darted down a 
cellarway, asking his companion to follow, and briefly 
pausing to explain himself. The sign " Saws and Files " 
was over the door, and in the depths was heard a regular 
clicking sound. 

"I think this fellow is cutting files," said he, "and I 
have never seen a file cut." Down they went, and, sure 
enough, there was a man recutting an old file, and they 
stayed ten minutes and found out all about the process. 



140 STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GARFIELD. 

The Way Garfield Got His Military Education-Using Poles, Blocks, and 
Grains of Coffee for Drill Purposes. 

It is a well-known fact that Gen. Garfield never had any 
militarj education j^revious to his taking command of the 
Forty-second Eegiment, Ohio Yohmteer Infantry. But 
the thorough disposition which he had cultivated, both as 
student and teacher, was with him here. 

He purchased at the first opportunity a copy of some 
book on military tactics, and immediately inaugurated an 
entirely original method of learning the movements of 
bodies of men. 

He prepared a large number of blocks, each representing 
columns of soldiers, and then went through with all the 
various movements described in the books, often working 
at the various problems until nearly morning. 

When he had quite well mastered the rudiments in this 
way, he began to drill his officers by means of skeleton 
companies, as he called them. He had prepared long poles, 
and, giving the ends of these into the hands of the men 
who were beinn; instructed, the marches, counter-marches 
and various parades would be gone through with wonderful 
accuracy and dispatch. 

" I have carried poles in this way many times," said 
Capt. C. E. Henry, one of his old officers, " and, if I do say 
so, we learned the movemeuts as fast as the men of any 
other regiment, even though the others might have been 
presided over by West Point officers. 

" Finally, he mislaid his blocks, and adopted grains of 
coffee, or corn, and still carried on his military maneuvers. 

" I have heard West Point officers say that he was as 
thorough as any officer they ever saw in his knowledge of 
the common principles of military aff;iirs. I never knew 
him to make a mistake in giving an order, or to hesitate in 
giving it." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 141 

The General Taking His Stand on Fugitive Slaves -A Story of the "War. 

A member of Gen. Sherman's staff is authority for the 
following incident, which is related as nearly as possible in 
his words: 

" One day I noticed a fugitive slave come rushing into 
camp with a bloody head, and apparently frightened almost 
to death. He had only passed my tent a moment when a 
regular bully of a fellow came riding up, and, with a volley 
of oaths, began to ask after his ' nigger.' 

" Gen. Garfield was not present, and he passed on to the 
division-commander. This division-commander was a sym- 
pathizer with the theory that fugitives should be returned 
to their masters, and that the Union soldiers should be 
made the instruments for returning them. He accordingly 
wrote a mandatory order to Gen. Garfield, in whose com. 
mand the darky was supposed to be hiding, telling him to 
hunt out and deliver over the property of the outraged 
citizen. 

" 1 stated the case as fully as I could to Gen. Garfield 
before handing him the order, but did not color my state- 
ment in any way. He took the order, and deliberately 
wrote on it the following indorsement: 

" ' I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my 
command to search for, or deliver up, any fugitive slaves. 
I conceive that they are here for quite another purpose. 
The command is open, and no obstacles will be placed in 
the way of the search.' 

" I read the indorsement, and was frightened. I expected 
that, if returned, the result would be that the General would 
be court-naartialed. I told him my fears. He simply 
re]:)lied: 

'"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right 
is right, and I do not propose to mince matters at all. My 
soldiers are here for far other purposes than hunting and 
returning fugitive slaves. 



142 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 




CHESTER A. ARTHTJE. 

A Sketch of the Life of the Republican Candidate for Vice-President. 

Chester Allan Arthur is a native of Vermont, having 
ibeen born at Fairiield, Franklin County, October 15th, 
11830. 

He was the oldest son ot the Eev. William A^rthur, D. D., 
a Baptist clergyman, and his mother's maiden name was 
Malvina Stone. His father was a native of the north of 
Ireland, and a graduate of the College of Belfast. He 
was a noted scholar and author of several books on 
philology. 

The subject of this sketch was fitted for college mainly 
under his father's instructions, but also studied at Green- 
wich, "Washington County, N. Y. He entered Union 
College, and graduated therefrom at the age of eighteen 
with high honors. He began the study of law soon after 
leaving college, in the office of the Hon. E. D. Culver, a 
former member of Congress from Pennsylvania., who was 
prominent in the anti-slavery struggles of thirty years ago. 
Gen. Arthur was admitted to the Bar in 1853, and began 
practice in New York. 

As a young man he early took great interest in political 



A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY. 143 

matters, and bore an active part in the Free-Soil agitation. 
He was a delegate from King's County (Brookljm) to the 
first Republican State Convention held in New York, and 
gained considerable reputation from his connection with the 
litigation growing out of slavery and the rights of colored 
citizens. 

He was attorney in the celebrated Lemon slave case, in 
which William M. Evarts acted as counsel, with Charles 
< J'Conor as opposing counsel for the slaveholder, Jonathan 
Lemon, of Virginia, who, on his way to Texas, brought 
slaves with him into New York. This case, involving 
some of the most important princij)les of personal liberties 
and the comities of the States, was in the courts for many 
years, and was finally decided by the Court of Appeals 
against the slaveholder. Gen. Arthur prepared all the 
papers in the case and sued out the wi'it of habeas corpus 
l)y which the case got into court. He was also attorney in 
the case involving the right of the black man to ride in the 
cars, in which he was also successful in the Court of las t 
resort. 

He continued in the practice of his profession with good 
success until the breakino- out of the war. Durino^ Gov. 
Morgan's administration he was for the first two years of 
the war Inspector and Quartermaster-General of New 
York. In this position he displayed remarkable organiz- 
ing capacity in placing the New York troops in the field, 
and gained a high reputation as an officer. 

Upon Seymour's election as Governor, Gen. Arthur re- 
turned to his practice, in which he continued until his ap- 
])ointment as Collector of the port of New York, in Novem- 
ber, 1871. This appointment came to him unsolicited, and 
was an entire surprise. He discharged the duties of the 
place with signal ability, and to the entire acceptance of 
the commercial public. Business men of all parties peti- 



144 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

tioned for liis retention in office, and lie was reappointed in 
1875, holding the position until his removal by President 
Hayes under circumstances with which the public is 
familiar. 

He is a portly, middle-aged gentleman, with gray hairs 
and pleasant features, social and amiable, fund of a good 
dinner, and at home is agreeable company; quite frequently 
seen on public occasions in Kew York, and very active, but 
never obtrusive; altogether a public-spirited citizen and 
typical New York business man; rather slow of speech, but 
good in substance, and is one of Gen. Grant's intimate 
iriends and admirers. 

Mr. Arthur is now engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion. He has two children — a son of 14 and a daughter of 
8 years of age. He had the misfortune to lose his devoted 
wife last January, whose death was sTuiden and unexpected. 
Mrs. Arthur was a daughter of the late Capt. Herndon, of 
the United States Navy, the intrepid explorer of the river 
Amazon, who was lost at sea while in command of the 
steamship Central America on her trip between Havana 
and New York in 1857. 




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